Contract, Culture, and Citizenship

Contract, Culture, and Citizenship: Transformative Liberalism from Hobbes to Rawls, Volume 1, explores the evolution of social contract theory within the realms of philosophy and political science. Mark E Button examines the works of key thinkers including Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls to argue that the social contract serves an educative purpose. Rather than focusing solely on the legitimation of governmental power, this history emphasizes how the contract cultivates the virtues and habits necessary for active citizenship.

This political science text analyzes the relationship between individual freedom and common citizenship in a pluralistic society. By investigating the history of public reason, the author demonstrates how political justification relies on character formation. Contract, Culture, and Citizenship: Transformative Liberalism from Hobbes to Rawls, Volume 1, provides a detailed academic study of how the social contract shapes the citizens who uphold it.