In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual.
Sir Robert Filmer was an English political theorist who defended the divine right of kings. His best known work, Patriarcha, published posthumously in 1680, was the target of numerous Whig attempts at rebuttal, including Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, James Tyrrell's Patriarcha Non Monarcha and John Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Filmer also wrote critiques of Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, Hugo Grotius and Aristotle.
Two Treatises of Government is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory. The book is a key foundational text in the theory of Liberalism.
Ted Honderich is a Canadian-born British professor of philosophy, who was Grote Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London.
Michèle Le Dœuff is a French philosopher with a scholarly interest in the philosophy of Francis Bacon, and Sir Thomas More's utopianism. She questions the boundaries of philosophy, while insisting upon philosophy's importance. She is critical of professional philosophers' neglectful attitude to science, and argues that disputes within sciences are often epistemological. In Hipparchia's Choice (1989) she questions philosophy's pretensions to being a unique practice which achieves a pure clarity: philosophy is inevitably shaped by language, metaphor, and power relations. According to Le Dœuff feminists make a special contribution. Their critique of gender categories in philosophy, science, and the humanities is empirical, philosophical, political, and interdisciplinary. Feminists see clearly how discourses are elevated to the status of 'philosophical' by a process in which social power is involved.
Jonathan Francis Bennett is a philosopher of language and metaphysics, specialist of Kant's philosophy and a historian of early modern philosophy. He has New Zealand citizenship by birth and has since acquired UK and Canadian citizenship.
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature is a 1979 book by the American philosopher Richard Rorty, in which the author attempts to dissolve modern philosophical problems instead of solving them by presenting them as pseudo-problems that only exist in the language-game of epistemological projects culminating in analytic philosophy. In a pragmatist gesture, Rorty suggests that philosophy must get past these pseudo-problems if it is to be productive. The work was considered controversial upon publication, and had its greatest success outside analytic philosophy.
Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality is a 1983 book by the philosopher Michael Walzer.
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy is a reference work in philosophy edited by the philosopher Ted Honderich and published by Oxford University Press. The second edition included some 300 new entries. The new edition has over 2,200 entries and 291 contributors.
Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy is a 1999 book by the philosopher Simon Blackburn. It is intended to serve as an introduction to philosophy.
Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations is a 1977 book by the philosopher Michael Walzer. Published by Basic Books, it is still in print, now as part of the Basic Books Classics Series. A second edition was published in 1992, a third edition in 2000, a fourth edition in 2006, and a fifth edition in 2015. The book resulted from Walzer's reflections on the Vietnam War.
Ethical Relativity is a 1932 book by the Finnish philosopher Edvard Westermarck, one of his main works.
Phaedon, published in 1767, is a book by the Jewish Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, in which Mendelssohn offers a defense of immortality.
Christianity not Mysterious is a 1696 book by the radical thinker John Toland.
Essays on Truth and Reality is a 1914 book by the English philosopher Francis Herbert Bradley, in which the author expounds his philosophy of absolute idealism and gives the classic statement of a coherence theory of truth and knowledge.
On the Content and Object of Presentations is an 1894 book by the Polish philosopher Kazimierz Twardowski, a student of the philosopher Franz Brentano.
The Theory of Good and Evil is a 1907 book about ethics by the English philosopher Hastings Rashdall. The book, which has been compared to the philosopher G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica (1903), is Rashdall's best known work, and is considered his most important philosophical work. Some commentators have suggested that, compared to Principia Ethica, it has been unfairly neglected.
The Person and the Common Good is a 1947 book about social philosophy by the French philosopher Jacques Maritain.
Thought and Action is a 1959 book about action theory by the philosopher Stuart Hampshire. The book has received praise from commentators, and is considered Hampshire's major work.
Interpretation and Social Criticism is a 1987 book about political philosophy by Michael Walzer.
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