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Shaftesbury, Mandeville, Berkeley, and the Myth of Social Contract
Ist Teil von
Fenomenologia e Societa, 2006-01, Vol.29 (4), p.128-145
Erscheinungsjahr
2006
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Sociological Abstracts
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The meaning of the term "contractualism" is explained, & the social contract theory, proposed by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Benedict Spinoza, & others, as a philosophical account of the origin of lawful society & civil government, is outlined. Pointing out the flaw of circularity in this account (political subjects would be capable of accepting legal norms only if they are themselves products of such norms), its critique & rejection by Anthony A. C. Shaftesbury, Bernard Mandeville, & George Berkeley are discussed. Each developed a different refutation argument & exposition methodology, & all three thought of themselves as adversaries, but their interpretations led to the same conclusion that the emergence of the contract-based law regulating citizens' lives in the modern state is a fallacy. Shaftesbury contests the plausibility of the notion of a state of nature, while Berkeley demonstrates the immanent nature of law & denies that individuals would play any role in its legitimization; the former account is characterized as historical & the latter as ontological. Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees (1729) is outlined to show how this Dutch-born English moralist dismissed the idea of social contract as a fiction. Z. Dubiel