Sign-In
Cart
Rethinking the Social Contract: From Classical Foundations to Digital Worlds, Climate Futures, and Global Justice
Paperback
PhilosophyGeneral Political ScienceInternational Relations
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 27 2026
Pages: 286
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In an age of planetary risk, digital transformation, and global interdependence, the idea of the social contract remains both indispensable and deeply contested. Rethinking the Social Contract brings together fifty chapters that trace the evolution of contractarian thought from its classical foundations to its contemporary frontiers. Edited by Jeffrey Iverson, this volume offers a sweeping, interdisciplinary inquiry into how societies imagine political obligation, legitimacy, and justice - and how those ideas must be reimagined for the twenty-first century.
The book opens with the canonical theorists - Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant - whose visions of political order shaped the architecture of modern constitutionalism, rights, and democratic governance. Their frameworks, grounded in rational agreement and mutual benefit, provided the scaffolding for liberal political theory. Yet they also embedded exclusions that later critics would expose. Feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, and critical race theorists reveal the hidden contracts beneath the official one, showing how gender, class, and race structured the very terms of political membership. These critiques do not merely reject the social contract; they expand its moral horizon.
Subsequent chapters examine the institutions that give contractual ideas their practical form: constitutions, markets, welfare systems, democratic representation, and the rule of law. These essays explore how abstract principles become lived realities, and how those realities shape the possibilities of freedom, equality, and cooperation. The volume also engages with communitarian, deliberative, and care-based alternatives, offering a rich account of how political obligation can be grounded in relational, procedural, and ethical frameworks beyond the logic of contract alone.
The final sections turn outward and forward. They ask what a social contract means in a world defined by digital platforms, ecological instability, and transnational inequality. Chapters on data governance, algorithmic power, and platform accountability explore how digital infrastructures reshape autonomy, consent, and legitimacy. Essays on climate change and intergenerational justice confront the moral asymmetries between present and future generations. The concluding chapters on cosmopolitanism and global justice imagine a contract that transcends borders, recognizing the shared conditions of life on a fragile planet.
Throughout the volume, the aim is not to defend the social contract as a fixed doctrine, nor to discard it as an outdated metaphor. Rather, the goal is to show how contractarian thinking continues to evolve - how it can illuminate the structures of power that shape our lives, guide institutional design, and help us imagine more just and sustainable futures. The social contract endures not because it is timeless, but because it is adaptable. It is a framework that invites continual reinterpretation as the conditions of political life change.
Rethinking the Social Contract is both a scholarly resource and a philosophical invitation. It offers readers a panoramic view of one of political theory's most enduring concepts, while challenging them to consider its relevance in a world marked by complexity, fragility, and transformation. Whether read as a historical survey, a critical anthology, or a blueprint for future political thought, this volume affirms that the question of how we live together - and under what terms - remains as vital now as ever.
Also from
Iverson, Jeffrey
The Cancer Science Glossary: A Modern Reference for Therapies, Pathways, and Clinical Practice
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Public Work of Sociology: Ideas, Institutions, and the Practice of Civic Knowledge
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Worlds of Political Economy: A Journey Through Ideas, Institutions, and Influence
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Agriculture Unlocked Volume 2 (P through Z): A Practical Glossary Making Farming Concepts Clear for Learners and Professionals
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
The Glossary of Anthropology: Essential Terms for Understanding Humans, Past and Present
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Lives in Stone: Biographical Portraits of the World's Great Geologists, Volume 1 (A - K)
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Understanding Mind and Behavior: A Glossary of Key Concepts in Psychology and Psychiatry
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
The Living Architecture of Biotechnology: A Unified Glossary of Mechanisms, Models, and Molecular Systems
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Agriculture Unlocked: A Practical Glossary Making Farming Concepts Clear for Learners and Professionals
Iverson, Jeffrey
Hardcover
Architects of the Invisible, Vol. 3 (M-R): The People Who Revealed the Hidden Laws of Nature
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Architects of the Invisible, Vol. 2 (H-L): The People Who Revealed the Hidden Laws of Nature
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Patterns of Life: Exploring the Structure, Minds, and Ecologies of the Animal Kingdom
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Carbon Visionaries: Pioneers Who Transformed the Structure and Science of Organic Molecules
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Where Systems Touch the Ground: Applied Anthropology Essays on Culture, Power, and the Fragile Machinery of Everyday Life
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Patterns of Power: How States, Societies, and Institutions Diverge and Evolve
Iverson, Jeffrey
Paperback
Also in
Philosophy
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument
Williams, Bernard
Paperback
The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge
Fixico, Donald Lee
Paperback
Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital Media
Lowenstein, Adam
Paperback
Machine Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Spiritual Freedom and the Re-Animation of Matter
Lafitte, Luke
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Robert M.
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Hardcover
The Electromagnetic Brain: Em Field Theories on the Nature of Consciousness
Joye, Shelli Renée
Paperback
Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
Roudinesco, Elisabeth
Paperback
The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744) with the Addition of Practic of the New Science
Vico, Giambattista
Paperback
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Giridharadas, Anand
Hardcover
The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Gottlieb, Anthony
Paperback
The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations
Annas, Julia
Barnes, Jonathan
Julia, Annas
Paperback
Friendship and Society: An Introduction to Augustine's Practical Philosophy
Burt, Donald X.
Paperback
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Hanselman, Stephen
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger
Hardcover
The Obstacle Is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us about Living
Jones, Peter
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition: The Global Bestseller
Mackesy, Charlie
Hardcover
Bless & Release: The physics of letting go-and wanting what's meant for you.
Laporte, Danielle
Paperback
The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love
Hardy, Janet W.
Easton, Dossie
Paperback
My Big TOE Awakening Discovery Inner Workings: The Complete My Big TOE Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics and Metaphysics
Campbell, Thomas
Hardcover
Self-Reliance and Nature: The Complete First and Second Series of Emerson's Essays
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Hardcover
Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan
Yoda, Hiroko
Hardcover
Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path of Unknowing
Smith, James K. A.
Hardcover