Originally published in 1987. This book analyses what Englishmen understood by the term contract in political discussions during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It provides evidence for reconsidering conventional accounts of the relationships between political ideas, groups and practices of the period. But also suggests cause for examining the general history of modern European contract theory. It considers contract as a term appearing in a spectrum of works from philosophical treatise to sermons and polemical pamphlets. Looking at the various vocabularies relating to contractualist ideas, the author suggests that standard histories of social contract theory and particular histories of English political thought during this unstable period have misrepresented the meaning of the term contract as a key term in political argument. He shows that there were in fact three different categories of contract theory but allows that the various kinds of contractualism did share certain broad features. This study of a crucial age in the history of appeals to contract in political argument will be of interest to political philosophers and historians.
By:
Martyn P. Thompson (Tulane University USA.) Imprint: Routledge Country of Publication: United Kingdom Volume: 7 Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g ISBN:9780367279257 ISBN 10: 0367279258 Series:Routledge Library Editions: 17th Century Philosophy Pages: 326 Publication Date:12 August 2019 Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active
