Contractarianism and Rational Choice: Essays on David Gauthier’s Morals by Agreement

David Gauthier’s Morals by Agreement (1986) is the most complete and suggestive contractarian theory of morality since the work of Rawls. In this anthology a number of prominent moral and political philosophers offer a critical assessment of Gauthier’s theory and its three main projects: developing a contractarian foundation for morality, defending a theory of rational choice, and supporting the claim that rationality requires one to keep one’s agreements. An introduction sets out Gauthier’s project, while Gauthier himself has the last word, responding to the critiques. This collection will interest moral and political philosophers, social theorists, and specialists in the philosophy and theory of law as well as management sciences.

Preface; Biographical note on David Gauthier; 1. Gauthier’s three projects Peter Vallentyne; Part I. Gauthier’s Contractarian Moral Theory: 2. Why contractarianism? David Gauthier; 3. Two faces of contractarian thought Jean Hampton; 4. Gauthier’s foundations for ethics under the test of application David Braybrooke; 5. Contractarianism and the assumption of mutual unconcern Peter Vallentyne; 6. Moral standing and rational-choice contractarianism Christopher W. Morris; Part II. Minimax Relative Concession and the Lockean Proviso: 7. The Lockean Proviso Peter Danielson; 8. Providing for rights Donald C. Hubin and Mark B. Lambeth; 9. Gauthier on distributive justice and the natural baseline Jan Narveson; 10. Equalizing concessions in the pursuit of justice: a discussion of Gauthier’s bargaining solution Jean Hampton; 11. Gauthier’s approach to distributive justice and other bargaining solutions Wulf Gaetner and Marlies Klemisch-Ahlert; Part III. The Rationality of Keeping Agreements: 12. Deception and reasons to be moral Geoffrey Sayre-McCord; 13. Contractarianism and moral skepticism David Copp; 14. Deriving morality from rationality Holly Smith; 15. Morality and the theory of rational choice Jody S. Kraus and Jules L. Coleman; 16. Closing the compliance dilemma: how it’s rational to be moral in a Lamarckian world Peter Danielson; 17. Rational constraint: some last words David Gauthier; Bibliography; Index.