The Idea of the Social Contract in the History of 'Agreementism

Bibliographic Data

ID3970607
AuthorsAna Solano Campos (0000-0003-0836-010X, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nova University of Lisbon, Av. de Berna, 26/1069-061 Lisbon, Portugal, corresponding author), Andre Santos Campos
Year2019
Volume24
Issue6
Pages579-596
Publication date2019-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe European Legacy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-8770 • E-ISSN: 1470-1316
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10848770.2019.1608049
OpenAlexW2942755359
LanguageEN
References cited22

One of the recurrent motifs in political thought is the idea of the social contract, according to which a society, a government, or moral principles depend for their existence on agreements between voluntary agents. This association between the social contract and "agreementism" implies that there is nothing about the terminology of contracts that distinguishes it from that of other types of agreements constitutive of normativity. This essay tests this assumption by surveying the terminology of the social contract and by proposing two hypotheses. The first is that all attempts at analysing the idea of the social contract require a formal conceptual frame of reference that is distinguishable from agreementism. The second is that social contract theories can be grouped into four trends, even if the authors of each of these trends are unable to form a coherent body of doctrine. These trends are the Iberian Catholic version of the Counter-Reformation; the Protestant individualist trend of the Enlightenment; the quasi-dialectical trend of the radical Enlightenment; and the contemporary trend of public morality

Economics · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social contract · Sociology · Corporate Governance and Law · Law

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