Abstract
Drawing on Daniel Defoe's Essay upon Projects, the Review, and Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, I argue that Defoe disputes the rational principles of natural law that undergird social contract theory by accentuating the failure of moral autonomy in the face of starvation and extreme insecurity. Though Defoe has often been seen as a proponent of burgeoning capitalism, Defoe's writings embody anxiety that bodily necessity overrules moral autonomy by keeping individuals terrified of losing their means of survival. For Defoe, the passage from nature into civil society can never be complete because human beings remain subject to inexorable bodily demands.
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