ABSTRACT
David Hume, Eighteenth Century philosopher, was one of the few to object to the prevailing obsession with reason. In A Treatise of Human Nature, first published in 1790, he argues that emotions are exclusive motivation for human action, while reason is restricted to abstract thinking. John Rawls' Kantian liberal theory of 'justice as fairness' has had a major influence on contemporary moral and political thought. Rawls' hypothetical device is original position. He proposes that someone in this situation would not be aware of their social position or their natural abilities. They would not be aware of 'their conceptions of good or their special psychological propensities'. Communitarians, such as Michael Sandel and Alistair MacIntyre, claim that people are essentially social beings and that, therefore, structure of society is the most appropriate starting point for political theory. Communitarians reject the idea of political theory as an objective search for universal values, claiming that such a theory should be socially grounded and interpretative.
