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| Title: | Conservative Contractarianism |
| Authors: | Watson, Terrence |
| Keywords: | Philosophy
Contractarianism
Gauthier
conservativism
evolutionary dynamics
computer simulations |
| Approved Date: | 2004 |
| Date Submitted: | 2004 |
| Abstract: | Moral contractarianism, as demonstrated in the work of David Gauthier, is an attempt to derive moral principles from the non-moral premises of rational choice. However, this contractarian enterprise runs aground because it is unable to show that agents would commit to norms in a fairly realistic world where knowledge is limited in space and time, where random shocks are likely, and where agents can be arbitrarily differentiated from one another. In a world like this, agents will find that the most "rational" strategy is to behave "non-rationally," imitating the behavior of others in their vicinity and preserving a limited sort of ignorance. |
| Department: | Philosophy |
| Degree: | Master of Arts |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/762 |
| Appears in Collections: | Faculty of Arts Theses and Dissertations
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UW)
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