By Rawls

Description

This last book by the late John Rawls, derived from written lectures and notes for his long-running course on modern political philosophy, offers readers an account of the liberal political tradition from a scholar viewed by many as the greatest contemporary exponent of the philosophy behind that tradition. Rawls\\\\\\\' goal in the lectures was, he wrote, \\\"to identify the more central features of liberalism as expressing a political conception of justice when liberalism is viewed from within the tradition of democratic constitutionalism\\\". He does this by looking at several strands that make up the liberal and democratic constitutional traditions, and at the historical figures who best represent these strands - among them the contractarians Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau; the utilitarians Hume, Sidgwick, and J. S. Mill; and Marx regarded as a critic of liberalism. Rawls\\\\\\\' lectures on Bishop Joseph Butler also are included in an appendix. Constantly revised and refined over three decades, Rawls\\\\\\\' lectures on these figures reflect his developing and changing views on the history of liberalism and democracy - as well as how he saw his own work in relation to those traditions. With its clear and careful analyses of the doctrine of the social contract, utilitarianism, and socialism - and of their most influential proponents - this volume has a critical place in the traditions it expounds. Marked by Rawls\\\\\\\' characteristic patience and curiosity, and scrupulously edited by his student and teaching assistant, Samuel Freeman, these lectures are a fitting final addition to his oeuvre, and to the history of political philosophy as well.

Table of Contents

Introduction : remarks on political philosophy 1

Lectures on Hobbes

Lecture I Hobbes\\\\\\\'s secular moralism and the role of his social contract 23

Lecture II Human nature and the state of nature 41

Lecture III Hobbes\\\\\\\'s account of practical reasoning 54

Lecture IV The role and powers of the sovereign 73

App Hobbes index 94

Lectures on Locke

Lecture I His doctrine of natural law 103

Lecture II His account of a legitimate regime 122

Lecture III Property and the class state 138

Lectures on Hume

Lecture I \\\"Of the original contract\\\" 159

Lecture II Utility, justice, and the judicious spectator 174

Lectures on Rousseau

Lecture I The social contract : its problem 191

Lecture II The social contract : assumptions and the general will (I) 214

Lecture III The general will (II) and the question of stability 229

Lectures on Mill

Lecture I His conception of utility 251

Lecture II His account of justice 266

Lecture III The principle of liberty 284

Lecture IV His doctrine as a whole 297

App Remarks on Mill\\\\\\\'s social theory 314

Lectures on Marx

Lecture I His view of capitalism as a social system 319

Published Year: 2007 Format: Hard Back ISBN: 978-0-674-02492-2 Publisher: Harvard University Press No of Pages: 496 Our Price: £ 22.95 Reviews: 0 reivew(s).

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