EPISODE 49 - Paul DeHart on Natural Law, Consent, and the Social Contract

Josh Bowman talks with his longtime friend and former professor, Paul R. Dehart on his new book, The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent (Univ. of Missouri, 2024). DeHart is Professor of Political Science at Texas State University.

DeHart argues that modern attempts to root political obligation and morality in contractarian thought on voluntarist terms are self-referentially incoherent as well as a normative failure. What implications might this have for the American Founding and Constitutional thought? Can the classical natural law tradition get along with social contract theory? Is social contract theory worth saving? Does the “consent of the governed” even matter? 

We discuss this and much more, giving attention to thinkers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Althuisus, Richard Hooker, and many others. 

Dr. DeHart’s profile at Texas State University https://faculty.txst.edu/profile/1922208

His Books:

The Social Contract in the Ruins: Natural Law and Government by Consent (Univ. of Missouri, 2024) https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826223050/the-social-contract-in-the-ruins/

Uncovering the Constitution's Moral Design (Univ. of Missouri, 2017) https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826221308/uncovering-the-constitutions-moral-design/

Also mentioned:

The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. 2: The Age of Reformation, by Quentin Skinner

And works by Francis Oakeley, J. Budziszewski, A. John Simmons, Brian Tierney, and others. 

The 2026 Ciceronian Society Conference will be held March 12-14 at Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Panel and paper proposals are due September 1, 2025.

To learn more about us, our events, this Podcast, our journal, Pietas, to sign up for our newsletter, and to make your tax deductible gift, please go to https://ciceroniansociety.org/

0:00 Introduction
3:38 Social Contract Theory
14:30 SCT vs Natural Law Tradition
24:23 Why It Fails
38:01 American Founding
52:24 Covenantal Realism
1:12:19 How to Handle Disagreements
1:23:18 First Principles
1:26:57 Paucity of Consent

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Introduction
• (00:03:38) - Social Contract Theory
• (00:14:30) - SCT vs Natural Law Tradition
• (00:24:23) - Why It Fails
• (00:38:01) - American Founding
• (00:52:24) - Covenantal Realism
• (01:12:19) - How to Handle Disagreements
• (01:23:18) - First Principles
• (01:26:57) - Paucity of Consent