Covenant and contract

Adela Cortina

"In today's world two narrations are vital for understanding human bonds: the account of reciprocal recognition, the Covenant, as told in the book of Genesis, extended in the works of G.H. Mead, dialogical personalism and discourse ethics; and the Contract, as this is expounded in Hobbes' Leviathan, which continues to be seen in all kinds of hues in the liberal tradition. The Aristotelian account of the republic, of the political community "prior" to any other form of community would seem to be connected with these. Covenant, Republic and Contract would thus become the three formulae for understanding human bonds. Israel, Athens (or the Italian renaissance republics) and London would be their countries of origin. Modern republicanism nevertheless turns liberal and opts for the contract between independent beings as fiat of the political world." "But the Contract is not...

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