"LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY": This last book by the late John Rawls, derived from written lectures and notes for his long-running course on modern political philosophy, offers readers an account of the liberal political tradition from a scholar viewed by many as the greatest contemporary exponent of the philosophy behind that tradition.

"LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY"by the late John Rawls.

Rawls's goal in the lectures was, he wrote, "to identify the more central features of liberalism as expressing a political conception of justice when liberalism is viewed from within the tradition of democratic constitutionalism." He does this by looking at several strands that make up the liberal and democratic constitutional traditions, and at the historical figures who best represent these strands--among them the contractarians Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau; the utilitarians Hume, Sidgwick, and J. S. Mill; and Marx regarded as a critic of liberalism. Rawls's lectures on Bishop Joseph Butler also are included in an appendix. Constantly revised and refined over three decades, Rawls's lectures on these figures reflect his developing and changing views on the history of liberalism and democracy--as well as how he saw his own work in relation to those traditions.

With its clear and careful analyses of the doctrine of the social contract, utilitarianism, and socialism--and of their most influential proponents--this volume has a critical place in the traditions it expounds. Marked by Rawls's characteristic patience and curiosity, and scrupulously edited by his student and teaching assistant, Samuel Freeman, these lectures are a fitting final addition to his oeuvre, and to the history of political philosophy as well.

Editor's Foreword

Introductory Remarks

Texts Cited

Introduction: Remarks on Political Philosophy

LECTURES ON HOBBES

 LECTURE I: Hobbes's Secular Moralism and the Role of His Social Contract

 LECTURE II: Human Nature and the State of Nature

 LECTURE III: Hobbes's Account of Practical Reasoning

 LECTURE IV: The Role and Powers of the Sovereign

 APPENDIX: Hobbes Index

LECTURES ON LOCKE

 LECTURE I: His Doctrine of Natural Law

 LECTURE II: His Account of a Legitimate Regime

 LECTURE III: Property and the Class State

LECTURES ON HUME

 LECTURE I: "Of the Original Contract"

 LECTURE II: Utility, Justice, and the Judicious Spectator

LECTURES ON ROUSSEAU

 LECTURE I: The Social Contract: Its Problem

 LECTURE II: The Social Contract: Assumptions and the General Will (I)

 LECTURE III: The General Will (II) and the Question of Stability

LECTURES ON MILL

 LECTURE I: His Conception of Utility

 LECTURE II: His Account of Justice

 LECTURE III: The Principle of Liberty

 LECTURE IV: His Doctrine as a Whole

 APPENDIX: Remarks on Mill's Social Theory

LECTURES ON MARX

 LECTURE I: His View of Capitalism as a Social System

 LECTURE II: His Conception of Right and Justice

 LECTURE III: His Ideal: A Society of Freely Associated Producers

APPENDIXES

Four Lectures on Henry Sidgwick

 LECTURE I: Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics

 LECTURE II: Sidgwick on Justice and on the Classical Principle of Utility

 LECTURE III: Sidgwick's Utilitarianism

 LECTURE IV: Summary of Utilitarianism

Five Lectures on Joseph Butler

 LECTURE I: The Moral Constitution of Human Nature

 LECTURE II: The Nature and Authority of Conscience

 LECTURE III: The Economy of the Passions

 LECTURE IV: Butler's Argument against Egoism

 LECTURE V: Supposed Conflict between Conscience and Self-Love

 APPENDIX: Additional Notes on Butler

Course Outline

Index