The social contract in the ruins : Natural law and government by consent / by Paul R. DeHart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeHart, Paul R., 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social contract--Philosophy.

Social contract.

Natural law.

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (477 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Columbia, Missouri : University of Missouri Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Most scholars who write on social contract and classical natural law perceive an irreconcilable tension between them. Social contract theory is widely considered the political-theoretic concomitant of modern philosophy. Against the regnant view, The Social Contract in the Ruins, argues that all attempts to ground political authority and obligation in agreement alone are logically self-defeating. Political authority and obligation require an antecedent moral ground. But this moral ground cannot be constructed by human agreement or created by sheer will-human or divine. All accounts of morality as constructed or made collapse into self-referential incoherence. Only an uncreated, real good can coherently ground political authority and obligation or the proposition that rightful government depends on the consent of the governed. Government by consent requires classical natural law for its very coherence"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Natural Law, Modernity, and Government by Consent: Where the Conflict Really Lies

Part I: The Social Contract in the Ruins?

Chapter 1. The Self-Referential Incoherence of Conventional Social Contract Theory

Chapter 2. Unconventional Justice: The Incoherence of Conventionalist Accounts of Justice in Antiquity and Modernity

Chapter 3. Moral Constructivism in the Dock: Moral Contractarianism's Normative Failure

Part II: The Inescapability of the Good: On the Nature of Moral Obligation

Chapter 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Failure of Modern Natural Law

Chapter 5. Fractured Foundations: The Contradiction between Locke's Metaphysics and Moral Ontology

Chapter 6. Reason and Will in Natural Law: The Necessity of Real Goodness and Prescriptive Will for Moral Obligation

Part III: Covenantal Realism: The Essential Dependence of Covenant and Consent on Classical Natural Law

Chapter 7. Whose Covenant? Which Social Contract Theory?: Covenant versus Natural Law or Covenant and Natural Law

Chapter 8. The Essential Dependence of Government by Consent on Natural Law

Chapter 9. The Paucity of Consent: Can Consent Theory's De Facto Problem Be Overcome?

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: DeHart, Paul R. The Social Contract in the Ruins

ISBN:

9780826275004

OCLC:

1439600814