David Gauthier

David Gauthier
FRSC
Born(1932-09-10)10 September 1932
Toronto, Ontario, Canada[3]
Died9 November 2023(2023-11-09) (aged 91)
EducationUniversity of Toronto (B.A. (Hons.), 1954)
Harvard University (A.M., 1955)
University of Oxford (B.Phil., 1957; D.Phil., 1961)
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic
Contractarianism
Contractarian ethics
Classical liberalism[1]
Main interests
Political philosophy, game theory, rational choice theory
Notable ideas
Contractarian ethics (morals by agreement), constrained maximization, Gauthier's Lockean proviso[2]
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David Gauthier FRSC (/ˈɡɔːtieɪ/; 10 September 1932 – 9 November 2023) was a Canadian philosopher best known for his neo-Hobbesian or contractarian theory of morality, as developed in his 1986 book Morals by Agreement.

  1. ^ Andrew Vincent, Modern Political Ideologies, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p. 54.
  2. ^ "Contractarianism". Contractarianism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021., §3
  3. ^ University of Pittsburgh, David Gauthier: Biography