Concept of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Mon Aug 15 16:03:32 UTC 2011


I have recently come across the following line of Gibbon's in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:  "The prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment."  This makes me wonder, what is the earliest known expression of the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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