Thomas G. West holds the Paul Ermine Potter and Dawn Tibbets Potter Endowed Professorship at Hillsdale College, Michigan. His research areas include American political thought, natural law and natural right, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, and Leo Strauss.
Introduction
Part I. The Political Theory of the Founding: An Overview: 1. Equality, natural rights, and the laws of nature
2. The case against the natural rights founding
3. Equality and natural rights misunderstood
4. The founder's arguments for equality, natural rights, and natural law
5. The state of nature
6. The social compact and consent of the governed
7. Natural rights and public policy
Part II. The Moral Conditions of Freedom: 8. Why government should support morality
9. How government supports morality
10. Sex and marriage in political theory and policy
11. Cultivating public support for liberty and virtue
12. What virtues should government promote?
13. The founder's virtues: questions and clarifications
Part III. Property and Economics: 14. The founder's understanding of property rights
15. Private ownership
16. Free markets
17. Sound money
18. The Hamilton-Jefferson quarrel
Conclusion. Justice, nobility, and the politics of natural rights
Index.
