contractarian

Contractarian refers to moral and political theories that justify norms by appealing to a social contract or hypothetical agreement among rational agents. In a contractarian framework, accepted principles are those rational beings would consent to under conditions that are fair and impartial, often modeled with a veil of ignorance that hides individuals’ identities and contingencies.

Historically, contractarian ideas appear in early modern writers such as Thomas Hobbes, who framed political authority as arising from a contract to escape a state of nature. Later contractarian and social-contract theorists include John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, each linking political legitimacy to agreements among free agents. In contemporary philosophy, figures such as David Gauthier and John Rawls have developed contractarian or contractualist programs that assess rules by their bargain-ability rather than by tradition or pure outcome.

Core questions concern what counts as a legitimate contract, what stability or fairness conditions must accompany an agreement, and how rights are protected within the resulting order. Rawls’s original position and veil of ignorance illustrate a method for deriving justice-based rules by imagining that participants choose behind a screen that deprives them of knowledge about their place in society; Gauthier emphasizes rational bargaining and mutual advantage.

Contractarianism is related to but distinct from contractualism, a related approach that emphasizes principles no one could reasonably reject rather than hypothetical agreements. It has influenced debates on justice, rights, taxation, and the legitimacy of political authority, and remains a focal point in discussions among liberal, communitarian, and libertarian perspectives.