Will and Political Legitimacy : : A Critical Exposition of Social Contract Theory in Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel / / Patrick Riley.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP e-dition: Complete eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Riley, Patrick,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2013]; ©1982
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Reprint 2014
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (276 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Preface --; Contents --; 1 How Coherent Is the Social Contract Tradition? --; 2 Will and Legitimacy in the Philosophy of Hobbes --; 3 Finding an Equilibrium between Consent and Natural Law in Locke's Political Philosophy --; 4 A Possible Explanation of Rousseau's General Will --; 5 Kant as the Most Adequate of the Social Contract Theorists --; 6 Hegel on Consent and Social Contract Does He "Cancel and Preserve" the Theory: Will? --; 7 Conclusion --; Notes --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780674435506; 9783110353488; 9783110353495; 9783110442212
• DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674435506
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Patrick Riley.

At the heart of representative government is the question: "What makes government and its agents legitimate authorities?" The notion of consent to a social contract between the citizen and his government is central to this problem. What are the functions of public authority? What are the people's rights in a self-governing and representative state? Patrick Riley presents a comprehensive historical analysis of the meaning of contract theory and a testing of the inherent validity of the ideas of consent and obligation. He uncovers the critical relationship between the act of willing and that of consenting in self-government and shows how "will" relates to political legitimacy. His is the first large-scale study of social contract theory from Hobbes to Rawls that gives "will" the central place it occupies in contractarian thinking.