Contractualism and Justification
نویسنده
چکیده
T. M. Scanlon I first began thinking of contractualism as a moral theory 38 years ago, in May of 1979. The idea was not entirely original. I was of course familiar with Rawls’ theory of justice, and influenced by it. A more direct source for the idea of justifiability to others as the basis of morality lay in remarks of Tom Nagel’s in Moral Questions. Rawls and Nagel had, perhaps, the wisdom not to try to try to work out a general moral theory based on this idea. But I naively rushed ahead, and even more naively thought that I could write a book developing such a theory over the course of the 1979-80 academic year, when I would be on leave and a visiting fellow at All Souls College, courtesy of Derek Parfit. All I managed to do, of course, was write one paper, “Contractualism and Utilitarianism.” When I showed an early draft to Parfit, his first response was, “Tim, this is not a moral theory. It is just an expression of your personality.” Judging from what Parfit said later, in On What Matters, his opinion of the project went up over the years, perhaps excessively, even though he still had criticisms. Partly as a result of these criticisms, my own opinion has become more qualified. I am still strongly attracted to the idea, but aware of faults in my original formulation and of serious difficulties facing any view of this general kind. In this paper I will examine some of these faults and difficulties, and consider how I might respond to them. The responses I survey will in many cases be only provisional.
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