Ryan Muldoon, “Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World: Beyond Tolerance” (Routledge, 2017)
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What is Ryan Muldoon’s critique of traditional social contract theory?
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Hello, thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy. I'm Robert Talise. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host this program with Carrie Figder. Carrie is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. My guest today is Ryan Muldoon. Ryan is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Buffalo in the SUNY system. His new book is titled Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World. Beyond tolerance. It's published by Routledge. Now in this book, Ryan launches a sweeping criticism of social contract theory. Both in its classical and its current formulations. He then proposes a revised version of social contract theory. And also А реорєнтачін про політика філософі і цел.
Інс ханс соцракт theory із нот. aimed primarily at the production and justification of principles of justice. So in that regard, it's a um pretty radical departure from standard Rawlsian uh views of uh the purpose of social contract theory. Rather, on Ryan's view, the social contract is a tool of discovery. um by which we conduct an ongoing social experiment with respect to the terms uh uh of our social association. Now, um it's a slender volume. Um but uh it's also uh contains a lot of uh original work. And Ryan's book is um It also covers a lot of ground, I should say. Um, so there's a lot to talk about. But uh why don't we begin where we normally do, which is uh by greeting our guest.
Hi Ryan.
Hi Bob, how are you?
I'm doing fine. Thank you for joining us on New Books in Philosophy.
Thanks for having me.
Well wonderful. I really look forward to talking about your book, but why don't you start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Sure. So uh I grew up in a in a bit of a hippie town. I grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, so Uh that's a a five college town, so in a way is uh sort of a uh a factory town where all the factories are universities so uh Uh lots and lots and lots of uh very lefty sorts. Uh the PhD per capita right there was a little ridiculous. My substitute chim teacher had an English PhD in elementary school. Uh And Amherst is the kind of place where uh you know at at town meetings we would pass UN resolutions and uh we would help salamanders cross the road during mating season uh to the point where we even as a town dug a tunnel underneath a road to let salamanders cross from one way to another. And uh every year people would help with lights to guide the salamanders through the tunnels.
They would avoid getting run over by cars. Uh was it that
big a problem? Was w were there a lot of was there a lot of salamander carnage otherwise?
By the time I was around there wasn't much because this was a big deal.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Ryan Muldoon’s critique of traditional social contract theory?
0:00–8:03
2
How does Muldoon argue that diversity is overlooked in classic contract theories?
8:03–15:56
3
What is the ‘view from everywhere’ and how does it replace the veil of ignorance?
15:56–23:23
4
How does the proposed bargaining model differ from consensus‑based approaches?
23:23–32:28
5
Why does Muldoon see the social contract as a tool for ongoing discovery, not a final justification?
32:28–39:52
6
What role do fixed points across perspectives play in shaping political agreements?
39:52–47:31
7
How does embracing cognitive and cultural diversity generate epistemic and economic benefits?
47:31–54:54
8
What are the broader implications of moving beyond tolerance for future political philosophy?
54:54–1:02:08
Speakers
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Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Philippe Huneman, "When Metaphysics Meets Biology: Kantian Approaches to the Concept of An Organism" (Routledge, 2026)
Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)
PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)