In his book The Limits of Morality, Shelly Kagan claims that contractarian
approaches to ethics are incompatible with our common, everyday, “moderate” morality.
In this thesis I defend a version of contractarianism that I believe leads to both
deontological constraints and options; i.e., to a genuinely moderate morality. On my
account, the parties to the agreement are conceived of as being motivated not only to
promote self-interest, but also to formulate a code of ethics that gives proper respect to
their moral status as persons. If such a picture of the bargainers’ motivations is
defensible, as I believe it is, then the ‘moderate’ may in fact have recourse to
contractarianism in her defense of everyday morality, for – as my thesis argues –
bargainers that are thus motivated will arrive at a moderate morality.