A Deliberative Model of Contractualism

Date

2008

Authors

Southwood, Nicholas

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sage Publications Inc

Abstract

Despite an impressive philosophical pedigree, contractualism (or contractarianism) has only been properly developed in two ways: by appeal to the idea of an instrumentally rational bargain or contract between self-interested individuals (Hobbesian contractualism) and by appeal to the idea of a substantively reasonable agreement among individuals who regard one another as free and equal persons warranting equal moral respect (Kantian contractualism). Both of these existing models of contractualism are susceptible to apparently devastating objections. In this article, I outline a third, 'deliberative' model of contractualism, which is based on the idea of a deliberatively rational agreement and which, I argue, represents a significant improvement on the Hobbesian and Kantian models in certain important respects.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: Contractarianism; Contractualism; Deliberation; Deliberative rationality; Gauthier; Scanlon

Citation

Source

Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2037-12-31