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Taking People as They Are?
Author(s) -
COHEN JOSHUA
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
philosophy and public affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.388
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1088-4963
pISSN - 0048-3915
DOI - 10.1111/j.1088-4963.2001.00363.x
Subject(s) - social contract , politics , phrase , sociology , government (linguistics) , general will , law , law and economics , epistemology , political science , philosophy , linguistics
My purpose is to consider if, in political society, there can be any legitimate and sure principle of government, taking men as they are and laws as they might be. —Jean‐Jacques Rousseau, The Social ContractFollowing Rousseau's opening thought in The Social Contract …, I shall assume that his phrase “men as they are” refers to persons' moral and psychological natures and how that nature works within the framework of political and social institutions. —John Rawls, The Law of peoples