Contract Theory and the Status of the Individual in Suarez (1548˗1617) and Locke (1632-1704)

by Jean-Paul Coujou

Coujou’s contract theory examines how political authority emerges from the tension between natural freedom and the necessity of civil order. Drawing on Suárez and Locke, it argues that legitimate power arises through collective consent grounded in natural law, not domination. Political society is thus a rational and moral construction oriented toward the common good, where law mediates freedom, equality, and obligation, ensuring that authority remains accountable to the principles of justice inherent in human nature.

Paperback $12.95 | Kindle $9.99

TESTIMONIALS

A penetrating and luminous study, this work retrieves the moral and metaphysical foundations of political life, guiding readers toward a renewed understanding of freedom, law, and the common good in an age of fragmentation.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, Provost of Pontifex University, Atlanta, GA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jean-Paul Coujou, member of the Institut Michel Villey, Agrégé de philosophie chaire supérieure classe exceptionnelle, doctor (Paris I), HDR (Paris IV), honorary professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Institut catholique de Toulouse, where he was director of the Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Society laboratory as well as director of the doctoral cycle, is the author of some thirty books, around a hundred articles, and winner of the Prix Charles Lévêque from the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques in 2012. He has also been a visiting professor at several foreign universities.

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