This concept allows individuals to act as “constrained maximizers” according to David Gauthier. Derek Parfit’s “Triple Theory” argues that Kantian ethics, rule consequentialism, and a system based on this concept converge to the same conclusion. Inspired by Carole Pateman, Charles W. Mills reformulated this concept along racial lines. An ethical system based on this concept was developed in T. M. Scanlon’s What We Owe to Each Other. A treatise on this concept, which argues that laws are not legitimate unless they follow the “general will,” opens “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” For 10 points, name this concept coined in a Jean-Jacques Rousseau book that envisions communities as agreeing to certain rights and responsibilities. ■END■
ANSWER: social contract [accept contractarian ethics; accept contractualism]
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