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Cardozo Law Review

Abstract

The idea that the law was founded on the self-interest and the will of rational individuals was first developed and proven in the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. These theorists reacted-admittedly, in extremely different ways-to the problem of finding a collective basis in a world which had lost its common religious fundaments and the economic basis of feudal communal life. The European world of the seventeenth century had fallen apart. The universalism of the catholic world had been replaced by a plurality of subjective worldviews championed by individuals, groups, sects, and new social entities. How could one conceive of a collective basis for society, one that would be able to prevent outbreaks of civil war, without imposing a common social and cultural form of life that had lost its cohesive force?

Keywords

Jurisprudence, Legal History, Democracy, Political Systems and Governments, Natural Law, Politics (General)

Disciplines

Jurisprudence | Law | Legal History | Natural Law

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