Social Contract Essay Example for Free

Social Contract EssayIs the aim of the social bewilder to establish e human racecipation, equality or merely peace? How far is it successful, and at what cost? (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) The Social Contract is a theory that originated during the Enlightenment, which addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the potential of the state everywhere the individual. Social stick arguments typic eithery posit that individuals have approveed, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their independences and submit to the authority of the ruler or the decision of a majority, in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. Its main proponents were Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. However, while they tout ensemble advocated a social ratify their formulations and ideas somewhat it do differ to some extent. This essay allow for attempt to argue that Hobbes hoped his social contract would establish peace, amongst naturally competitive men whil st Rousseau valued securing liberty and Locke wanted it to secure rights for people and stop them living in fear. However, all of these do bonk at some price, namely the cost of some liberties, however, as Locke agreed what was important was that relative to the state of temperament, man now knowd in a better, freer, more equal and peaceful society.The first modern philosopher to articulate a detailed contract theory was Thomas Hobbes (15881679). According to Hobbes, the lives of individuals in the state of nature were solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short (Leviathan. Ch13. p89), a state in which self-interest and the absence of rights prevented the social, or society. Life was anarchic, without leadership or the concept of a sovereign. Individuals in the state of nature were apolitical and asocial. Thus for Hobbes the state of nature is necessarily followed by the social contract.He believed the social contract would involve individuals ceding some of their individual rig hts so that opposites would cede theirs. This resulted in the establishment of the state, a sovereign entity bid the individuals now under its rule used to be, which would create laws to regulate social interactions, in the hope that human life would no longer be a war of all against all. (Leviathan. Ch13. p89). Thus Hobbes attempts to prove the necessity of the Leviathan for preserving peace and preventing civil war, thus he is most concerned with securing a safe, protected state for man.This is obligatory because Hobbes has a negative view of man. He claims we atomic number 18 merely motivated by what he calls aversion and appetite. (Leviathan. Ch6. p38) due to his belief that humans argon all self-seeking individuals, with no pre-disposition to cooperate with some others or help them unless it is indoors their induce interests. (Trigg. 1988. ) Thus the general inclination of all mankind (is) a perpetual and prompt desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death (Leviathan. Ch11. p70) and that men are continually in competition for honour and dignity. (Leviathan. Ch17. p119) Thus the social contract becomes necessary as a way of reducing such competition and securing peace. Furthermore, Hobbes believes it is possible to mitigate this competition with reference to his laws of nature.The first that we seek peace, and follow it (Leviathan. Ch14. p92) as it would clearly never be advantageous for us to reside in an insecure society, where we constantly feared beingness destroyed and competed with, as Hobbes writes, that every man, ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it. (Leviathan. Ch14. 92) This is successful and Hobbes has a strong point here, we gage agree that we are stronger as a group and that it is careful to confer all power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices into one will (Leviathan. Ch17. p126) This is clear in the modern day, we elect those people we wish to represent our will, we do non all feel a need to self-govern. So although we are defined by our power and competitiveness in the state of nature, we will value peace and security so necessarily opt for this contract.Furthermore Hobbes split second fundamental law of nature is that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far as for peace and defence of himself he shall have in mind it necessary, to lay down this right to all things and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself (Leviathan. Ch14. p92). This idea of mutual contracts concords with the ideas of Lockes and Rousseaus social contracts, that people would choose to live in society to maintain or create freedom and uphold natural values.However, for Hobbes, men cannot know good and evil, and in consequence can only live in peace together by seduction to the absolute power of a frequent master, thus a cost of Hobbes social contract is that man is now subjected to absolute rule and appears to lose more of his freedoms than either Locke or Rousseau deemed necessary, yet for Hobbes this is the only way to ensure peace, despite it seeming that such controlled rule would only engender disagreement and revolt.Hobbes theory has implications and his bring emphasises some important aims of humanity, especially that peace is worth having at any cost, a view Hobbes wants us to adopt after his reasoning in Leviathan. It is common sense that without the base instinct of survival and survival itself, nothing else would be truly possible. (Bagby. 2009. p47) Furthermore Hobbes discusses fear as the basis of the existence of the state and although our universe is a very polar context to the world Hobbes experienced, Professor Ginzburg does not see any change in the fear factor that sustains authority. (Kumar. 2007)However, John Locke, although another(prenominal) social contract theorist, his conception differed from Hobbes in several fundamental ways, retaining only the central notion that persons in a state of nature would willingly come together to form a state. Locke believed that individuals in a state of nature would be bound morally, by the Law of Nature, not to harm each other in their lives or possession, but without government to defend them against those seeking to injure or enslave them people would have no security in their rights and would live in fear, rather like Hobbes suggested.Locke argued that individuals would agree to form a state that would provide a neutral judge (Locke. 2003) acting to protect the lives, liberty, and property of those who lived within it. While Hobbes argued for near-absolute authority, Locke argued for inviolate freedom under law in his Second Treatise of Government. Locke argued that governments legitimacy comes from the citizens delegation to the government of their right of self-defence of self-preservation (Locke. 2003).The government thus acts as an impar tial, objective agent of that self-defence, rather than each man acting as his own judge, jury, and executioner, the modify in the state of nature. In this view, government derives its just powers from the consent (delegation) of the governed. (Locke. 2003) Furthermore, for Locke peace is the norm, and should be the norm. We can and should live together in peace by refraining from molesting each others property and persons, and for the most part we do. notwithstanding it is clear in Hobbes that he believes man is naturally self-interest and will compete for resources. Lockes fundamental target is political absolutism, understood as the physical exercise of power unconstrained by law or by any procedures for settling disputes among rulers and ruled. (Boucher. 2003. p. 184) Where Hobbes argued that absolute power was necessary to keep the peace between humans instead Locke insists the point of political institutions is to avoid, and remedy those inconveniences of the State of Natu re, which necessarily follow from every Mans being judge in his own case. (Locke. SecondTreatise. 2003) as Locke believed humans were born(p) free and that by nature human beings are one anothers equals, so should not be henpecked or restrained to the extent of Hobbes. These inconveniences, such as a social atmosphere of miserable uncertainty are not solved by subjecting all but one person in society to the rule of law. Thus Locke believed that people would be worse off under absolute power than they would in the uncertain mercy of others judgement, so he did not advocate this.Lockes contract aims to benefit individuals, it is an individualised functionalism. Thus for Locke an institution that is deleterious to individuals, relative to what they might secure on their own without government, is illegitimate, as no rational creature can be supposed to change his condition with an intent to be worse. (Locke. Second Treatise. 2003) Furthermore, Rousseau (17121778), in his influentia l 1762 treatise The Social Contract, outlined a different version of social contract theory.Rousseaus social contract can be summarised as, each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will and in a body we receive each member as an indivisible by(predicate) part of the whole. (Rousseau. Social Contract. 2002). For Rousseau the fundamental aim of the social contract is to establish freedom, believing that liberty was possible only where there was direct rule by the people as a whole in law making, where popular sovereignty was indivisible and inalienable.However, people also desire the advantages of living in a society, because it is only as a citizen that man can fulfil himself and become virtuous. Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains. (Social Contract. p. 141). Thus Rousseau aimed to create a political and social order where this contradiction would be resolved, the key purpose being to find a form of association that defends and protects with all common forces the person and goods of each associate, and by means of uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself, and remains as free as before. (Social Contract. p. 148).For Rousseau the answer lay in the social contract. Thus everyone entering into civil association mustiness give up his rights to the whole friendship this is the cost for Rousseau. Yet there are benefits too, as Rousseau argued this passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces quite a remarkable change in man, for it substitutes justice for instinct in his behaviour and gives his actions a moral quality they previously lacked. (Social Contract. p. 150).This is successful because the whole citizen body is the sovereign, thus is cannot have interests contrary to the individuals who represent it (Boucher. 2003. p. 247) as the sovereign need give no guarantee to the citizens the sovereign by the mere fact it exists, is always all that is should be. (Socia l Contract. p. 150). Additionally, Rousseau rejected Hobbes view that man is self-seeking and competitive by nature. (Boucher. 2003. p. 240) However his notion does have similarities with Hobbes.For Rousseau, in contrast with Locke, the state of nature is neither a social nor moral condition (Boucher. 2003. p. 241) and in fact nature gives us no sanction for legitimate authority, rather it is the condition where no one has a right to rule over another. There is no justice or injustice, man is merely solitary and self-sufficient. Furthermore Rousseau is hoping to diminish the dependence of man, however this cannot be done in its sum rather one form of dependence can be substituted for another. Boucher. 2003. p. 251) Rousseaus political theory differs in important ways from that of Locke and Hobbes. Rousseaus collectivism is most evident in his development of the luminous conception (which he credited to Diderot) of the general will. Rousseau argues a citizen cannot pursue his true i nterest by being an egoist but must instead subordinate himself to the law created by the citizenry acting as a collective.Rousseaus striking phrase that man must be compel to be free (Social Contract) reveals that the indivisible and inalienable popular sovereignty decides what is good for the whole, then if an individual lapses back into his ordinary egoism and disobeys the leadership, he will be forced to listen to what they decided as a member of the collective, as citizens. Thus, the law, in as much as it is created by the people acting as a body, is not a limitation of individual freedom, but its expression. Moreover, Rousseau believed that the laws that govern a people helped to mould their character, so law is a civilizing force.Laws represent the restraints of civil freedom they represent the leap made from humans in the state of nature into civil society. Thus enforcement of law, which may seem a cost in his contract theory, is actually not a restriction on individual lib erty, as the individual, as a citizen, explicitly agreed to be constrained. Ultimately the social contracts of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau are successful for the conception of man in the state of nature that each held however due to this they all had varying aims.For Hobbes, man begins as necessarily competitive and unsocial, thus his contract must aim to establish peace and thus requires absolute rule. However, for Locke, man is by nature a social animal and not purely self-interested, thus securing peace primarily is less important, rather man here retains the right to life and liberty, and gains the right to just, impartial protection of their property, as this is more prudent than each trying to protect their own and living in constant fear.Yet for Rousseau the fundamental aim of the social contract was to establish freedom, as man was naturally free, but was restrained and this freedom needed realising and maintaining. Overall, the social contract of the three thinkers is marked ly different, however each is justifiable given their different views of the state of nature and mans inherent nature, nonetheless there are costs to mans total freedom as he must give up rights to the rulers and follow new laws, to varying degrees. Fundamentally, the society posited by all three is seen to be an improvement on the state of nature in terms of its freedom, equality and peacefulness.