Contractarianism as a Broad Church
Loading...
Date
Authors
Advisors/Reviewers
Further Contributors
Contributing Institutions
Publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Quotable link
Abstract
I defend the claim, made in a previous paper, that `a Humean can be a contractarian', against the criticisms of Anthony de Jasay. Jasay makes a categorical distinction between `ordered anarchy' (which he associates with Hume) and `social contract theory'. I argue that Hume's political position was conservative, not anarchist. On Hume's analysis, a convention is an implicit agreement; the concept of convention is more general than, rather than distinct from, that of agreement by exchange of promises. Hume justifies political obligation by treating established forms of government as conventions in this sense.Link to publications or other datasets
Description
Notes
Original publication in
Rationality, markets, and morals: RMM 4 (2013), 61 - 66