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This reader introduces students of philosophy and politics to the contemporary critical literature on the classical social contract theorists: Thomas Hobbes (1599-1697), John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Twelve thoughtfully selected essays guide students through the texts, familiarizing them with key elements of the theory, while at the same time introducing them to current scholarly controversies. A bibliography of additional work is provided. The classical social contract theorists represent one of the two or three most important modern traditions in political thought. Their ideas dominated political debates in Europe and North America in the 17th and 18th cent...
Bear sends updates on her adventures as she travels to visit Bird, who has migrated south for the winter.
This book presents a selection of Gauthier's writings on practical rationality and deliberation. The chapters develop and clarify Gauthier's theory of practical rationality, and draw out insights relevant to economic theory.
In this book the author argues that moral principles are principles of rational choice. According to the usual view of choice, a rational person selects what is likely to give the greatest expectation of value or utility. But in many situations, if each person chooses in this way, everyone will be worse off than need be. Instead, Professor Gauthier proposes a principle whereby choice is made on an agreed basis of co-operation, rather than according to what would give the individual the greatest expectation of value. He shows that such a principle not only ensures mutual benefit and fairness, thus satisfying the standards of morality, but also that each person may actually expect greater utility by adhering to morality, even though the choice did not have that end primarily in view. In resolving what may appear to be a paradox, the author establishes morals on the firm foundation of reason.
Oxford Scholarly Classics brings together a number of great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Reissued in a uniform series design, they will enable libraries, scholars, and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century.
Rousseau is often portrayed as an educational and social reformer whose aim was to increase individual freedom. In this volume David Gauthier examines Rousseau's evolving notion of freedom, where he focuses on a single quest: Can freedom and the independent self be regained? Rousseau's first answer is given in Emile, where he seeks to create a self-sufficient individual, neither materially nor psychologically enslaved to others. His second is in the Social Contract, where he seeks to create a citizen who identifies totally with his community, experiencing his dependence on it only as a dependence on himself. Rousseau implicitly recognized the failure of these solutions. His third answer is one of the main themes of the Confessions and Reveries, where he is made for a love that merges the selves of the lovers into a single, psychologically sufficient unity that makes each 'better than free'. But is this response a chimaera?
This book presents a selection of David Gauthier's writings on Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and the theory of political contractarianism. The essays cover topics including Hobbes on law, social contract theory, and public reason.
In this anthology, prominent moral and political philosophers offer a critical assessment of Gauthier's theory.
This volume presents a selection of David Gauthier's writings on Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and the theory of political contractarianism. The eight essays on Hobbes, written over four decades, represent the author's changing understanding of the moral and political theories since the publication of The Logic of Leviathan (OUP, 1969). These include essays on Hobbes on law, challenging influential readings of his legal philosophy, and a previously unpublished piece, 'The True and Only Moral Philosophy', providing a close reading of chapters 13-15 of Leviathan. The four essays on social contract theory include an extended version of 'Political Contractarianism' (1997), Gauthier's well-known 'Public Reason' (1994), and a paper previously available only in French and Spanish translations.
This volume offers an exposition and evaluation of major work in social contract theory from 1950 to the present.