Join the James Wilson Institute and The Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy as it hosts Paul R. DeHart for a webinar discussing themes from his latest book The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent. In describing The Social Contract in the Ruins, Professor Arkes stated: "Human beings are the only creatures who can make a promise, consent to a contract, undertake an obligation--and respect the commitment to these obligations even when it runs counter to their interests. These are things that can be done only by 'moral agents', creatures who can weigh the interests that justify the contracts--or the government--to which they’ve consented. For as moral agents they know that they have no right to contract to do wrongful things, even to themselves. They know also that a government brought forth with their consent may try at times to commit them to do wrongful things. What is the ground then of the obligation to obey a political authority that would lay down laws for us to obey? Paul de Hart, in this remarkable work, has drawn on the breadth of moral and political philosophy, ancient and modern, to find the deepest things that writers thought they could say on this subject. No one, in my memory, has subjected these writers to the most demanding logical tests at the very root of their arguments--and exposed the incoherence that undoes some of the most celebrated writings. As De Hart leads us to see, the obligation to obey will find its most coherent, defensible ground in natural law, with its anchoring moral truths. 'In sum', says DeHart, 'government by consent requires a moral basis--moral norms, not created by but normative for human willing and behavior'--a 'goodness that cannot be created by bare strength, by sheer power, or even by omnipotent will'… 'a goodness being at the foundation of reality'.”

CLE credit is being applied for in Virginia and Texas for this webinar

Bio:

Paul R. DeHart is professor of political science at Texas State University where he specializes in natural law, the American founding, early modern political theory, social contract theory, the grounds of political authority and obligation, and the relationship between religion and political order. He is author of The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent (University of Missouri Press 2024), Uncovering the Constitution’s Moral Design (University of Missouri Press 2007 and 2017) and editor, with Carson Holloway, of Reason, Revelation, and the Civic Order: Political Philosophy and the Claims of Faith (Northern Illinois University Press 2014). DeHart's articles have appeared in journals such as Polity, Critical Review, Locke Studies, Perspectives on Political Science, National Affairs, and the Catholic Social Science Review. He has also published several essays at online journals and webzines like Public Discourse and Law & Liberty. His public scholarship has been discussed within multiple Presidential campaigns and within state government. He has delivered invited lectures at Oxford University in the Rothermere American Institute's Constitutional Thought and History Seminar, in a series for the Attorney General's Office for the State of Texas, and at the University of Dayton’s School of Law.

DeHart holds a PhD (2005) in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. He also holds an MA from UT-Austin (2000) and a BA (summa cum laude) from Houghton College (now Houghton University) in Political Science and Philosophy, where he also minored in classical vocal performance.

Acclaim for Professor DeHart's work:

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University calls The Social Contract in the Ruins “a masterpiece.” J. Budziszewski of the University of Texas at Austin says, “Its contributions are striking, original, and important.” According to Hadley Arkes, “DeHart, in this remarkable work, has drawn on the breadth of moral and political philosophy, ancient and modern, to find the deepest things that writers thought they could say on government by consent. No one else, in my memory, has subjected these writers to the most demanding logical tests at the very root of their arguments—and exposed the incoherence that undoes some of the most celebrated writings.” Speaking of Uncovering the Constitution’s Moral Design, Arkes remarks, “The remarkable achievement of this book is that the case DeHart makes for the moral telos of the Constitution has been made now in a way that must be utterly compelling to anyone who has not closed his mind entirely to the canons of reason. This is a rare and remarkable achievement. I know of nothing else that does the work this well.” Wolterstorff says that Reason, Revelation, and the Civic Order is “a bold and courageous book, contesting the pieties of our present day. It fills a huge gap in the literature.”