Theoretical Background: The Inclusion of Disabled People

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Gauthier de Beco

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.

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Martinich

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 486-503
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
Andi Chandra Jaya

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


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch

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.


Author(s):  
Zoe Beenstock

As a sociable being that is barred from society, Frankenstein’s monster presents a sustained engagement with social contract theory’s major dilemma of whether individualism can produce sociability. The male creature’s isolation and inner disunity suggest that contract theory displaces men and is unable to concatenate even those members that should be eligible for full citizenship. Shelley focuses on the gender inequality of contract theory through her different creation stories of the creatures’ bodies. In Victor’s decision not to complete the female creature she rejects Wollstonecraft’s revisionist approach to Rousseau, and demonstrates that social contract theory cannot be rewritten to include women. Women are not defined as political subjects but do have independent wills. Therefore, they are potentially resistant to contract and a threat to political control. Contending with Wollstonecraft and Rousseau, and also Coleridge and Godwin, Shelley suggests that intertextual relations produce unpredictable results. The creatures are test cases for the social contract’s respective failures in terms of social cohesion and gender.


Author(s):  
Murray G. Murphey

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.


2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Boucher

This article critically analyzes Carole Pateman's novel and provocative reading of social contract theory in her now-classic work, The Sexual Contract. Pateman posits the existence of a sexual contract prior to the social contract which she argues has been suppressed in the tradition of Western political thought. The article indicates some of the potential weaknesses with constructing a gendered critique of contract theory through the lens of a sexual contract. The author specifically focuses on Pateman's re-interpretation of the patriarchalism of Hobbes and Locke to make this case.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 433-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nien-hê Hsieh

ABSTRACT:Of the many developments in business ethics that Thomas Donaldson has helped pioneer, one is the application of social contract theory to address questions about the responsibilities of business actors. InCorporations and Morality, Donaldson develops one of the most sustained and comprehensive accounts that aims to justify the existence of for-profit corporations and to specify and ground their responsibilities. In order to further our understanding about the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, and as a contribution to the scholarship on Donaldson’s thought, this paper gathers together the critical responses to Donaldson’s account along with Donaldson’s replies to his critics. The paper argues that we would do well to continue engaging with Donaldson’s account because of its distinctive and challenging conception of the purpose and responsibilities of productive organizations, but that many of the insights to be gained come from reframing the role played by social contract theory.


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