Patent Law and the Assurance Game: Refitting Intellectual Property in the Box of Regulation

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shubha Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Assurance Game ◽  
Unique Relationship

Patent law is often understood through the fiction of social contract. The author argues that this fiction does not offer an adequate economic or political theory of patent law, that is, one that will explain the unique relationship between government and property that patents entail. As an alternative to social contract theory, a regulatory theory of patent law is developed based on the assurance game taken from game theory. The assurance game is used to show how patent law serves to regulate the invention process and the market for innovative products.

Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray G. Murphey
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
University Of Virginia ◽  
The University

Thomas Jefferson came from a privileged background, began his public career as a lawyer, and rose to hold the governorship of his home state of Virginia and to serve his country successively as minister to France, secretary of state, vice-president and president. His proudest declared achievements were to have been author of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and founder of the University of Virginia. An architect, inventor, scientist, educator and writer, he was one of the most versatile and brilliant men of his generation. In philosophy his main contribution was to political theory, where he supported a social contract theory and a doctrine of natural rights.

Egoism, Reason, and the Social Contract

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Martinich
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Civil State ◽  
The Social

Bernard Gert’s distinctive interpretation of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes in his recent book may be questioned in at least three areas: (1) Even if Hobbes is not a psychological egoist, he seems to be a desire egoist, which has the consequence, as he understands it, that a person acts at least for his own good in every action. (2) Although there are several senses of reason, it seems that Hobbes uses the idea that reason is calculation of means to ends; while such calculation sets intermediate goals, reason itself does not set ultimate ends. (3) Hobbes’s political theory is best understood as a form of social contract theory because subjects covenant among themselves to authorize the sovereign to protect them; authorization has the consequence that subjects give some of the their rights to the sovereign; but this gifting of rights is not the essence of the origin of the civil state.

Associations in Social Contract Theory: Toward a Pluralist Contractarianism

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 486-503
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
State Power ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
The Social ◽  
Free People

Liberals can be distinguished from one another in a number of ways, including by what they regard as the greatest threats to liberty. According to Jacob T. Levy, “rationalist” liberals think that nonpolitical institutions are the chief threats to freedom and that democratic governance can free people from these private tyrannies. By contrast, “pluralist” liberals think that governments are the chief threats to liberty, and civil associations are a bulwark against encroaching state power. Levy has recently argued that the rationalist and pluralist strands of the liberal tradition cannot be combined into a single political theory. In this essay, I disagree. My strategy is to develop a version of contractarian political theory that treats associations as sources of legitimacy. This pluralist contractarianism solves two problems. It shows that the social contract theory can survive the pluralist critique. And since the social contract theory is often understood as rationalist liberalism par excellence, it shows that we can combine rationalist and pluralist insights into a single theory, contra Levy.

Theoretical Background: The Inclusion of Disabled People

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Gauthier de Beco
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theories Of Justice

This chapter starts by challenging the view of independence in legal theory. It goes on to assess social contract theory, in particular Rawls’s Theory of Justice, as well as criticisms of this theory put forward regarding disability. The aim is not only to expose the vacuum in political theory as well as the failure to offer disabled people equal moral consideration but also to examine what are the possible ways forward. The chapter therefore explores how theories of justice other than the social contract theory can be used in order to determine what is needed for including disabled people. It discusses two such theories, namely capabilities and recognition theories, and investigates both their limits and their potential in making them of benefit to all disabled people. It also proposes a combination of those theories so as to gear them towards the objectives of the CRPD.

scholarly journals Contracting for Catastrophe:Legitimizing Emergency Constitutions by Drawing on Social Contract Theory

Res Publica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Voigt
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Half Century ◽  
States Of Emergency ◽  
The World

AbstractStates of emergency are declared frequently in all parts of the world. Their declaration routinely implies a suspension of basic constitutional rights. In the last half century, it has become the norm for constitutions to contain an explicit ‘emergency constitution’, i.e., the constitutionally safeguarded rules of operation for a state of emergency. In this paper, I ask whether inclusion of an emergency constitution can be legitimized by drawing on social contract theory. I argue that there are important arguments, both against and in favor of constitutionalized emergency provisions, and that social contract theory—as applied by economists—can be of some help when deciding whether to have, or not to have an emergency constitution. This paper introduces a novel argument for justifying emergency constitutions. It argues that they can serve as a commitment mechanism protecting both citizens and politicians from overreacting to rare but significant threats.

scholarly journals Evaluating social contract theory in the light of evolutionary social science

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Paul Seabright ◽  
Jonathan Stieglitz ◽  
Karine Van der Straeten
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory

scholarly journals Konsep Nation-State dalam Pemikiran Ideologi Politik Melayu Islam pada Abad Ke-19 M (Studi Pemikiran Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi (1787-1854)

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
Andi Chandra Jaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Nation State ◽  
State Management ◽  
The Social

The focus of this study is to answer the subject matter of how the concept of the nation-state according to Abdullah Munsyi in the constellation of Malay Islamic political ideology in the 19th century AD and how is the relevance of the concept of the current Indonesian nation state ? The study used the conscience morale theory of Ernest Renan and the social contract theory initiated by J. J. Roussae. This research is included in the library research category and uses historical approaches and political philosophy. The primary data in this study are Abdullah Musnyi's Hikayat Abdullah book published by Yayasan Karyawan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2007 and secondary data, in the form of books, journal articles, papers, and others related to research problems. the findings of the research are: 1). In accordance with the theory of conscience morale Ernest Renan and the social contract theory initiated by J. J. Roussae, Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munsyi was the originator of nationalism. Through his most important work, Hikayat Abdullah, he put forward the formulation of Malay identity in the formulation of the nation which was understood as a Malay tribe or race who had the right to be involved in determining the Malay political format not as a community under a political system that was authoritarian. 2). His closeness with the British colonial side, thus forming the liberal thinking he obtained from Raffles and his friends. He not only dismantled the manipulation of royal ideology, but at the same time put forward a new view of the existence of a humanist individual. 3). The understanding of nationality has egalitarian values ​​that are very relevant to the current Indonesian context, especially the values ​​of equality (egalitarianism) in the midst of the emergence of conflicts in various conflicts today. Likewise the concept of nation-state is closely related to nationalism and good governance where good governance is based on the absolute existence of transparency, open participation, and accountability in all state activities at every level of state management, so that a clean government is formed. Keywords: Abdullah Munsyi, Nation-State, and Malay Political ideology

The Epicureans on Human Nature and its Social and Political Consequences

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Social

Based on certain passages in Colotes, Hermarchus, and Horace, the Epicureans may be thought to defend a social contract theory that is roughly Hobbesian. According to such a view, human life without the social contract is solitary and brutish. This paper argues that such a reading is mistaken. It offers a systematic analysis of Lucretius’s culture story in On the Nature of Things v as well as the Epicurean passages that at first sight seem to contradict the Lucretian account. The conclusion of such an analysis is not only that all extant evidence is internally consistent, but also that Epicurean social contract theory relies on a ‘dynamic’ conception of human nature: On the Epicurean view, agents have very different psychological motivations when coming together to form societies and when coming together to form political and legal states.

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