“‘Contractarianism’ names both a political theory of the legitimacy of political authority and a moral theory about the origin or legitimate content of moral norms. The political theory of authority claims that legitimate authority of government must derive from the consent of the governed, where the form and content of this consent derives from the idea of contract or mutual agreement. The moral theory of contractarianism claims that moral norms derive their normative force from the idea of contract or mutual agreement. Contractarians are skeptical of the possibility of grounding morality or political authority in either divine will or some perfectionist ideal of the nature of humanity …” (more)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. First published Sun June 18, 2000; substantive revision Thu September 30, 2021.
First posted 2021-10-02 13:00:36
Leave a Reply