what is the main idea of the social contract

The main idea of the social contract is that to live together in a harmonious society, people must agree to give up certain rights and not infringe on the rights of others. Thomas Hobbes

, the seventeenth-century British philosopher, wrote about the social contract, concluding that it justified the rule by a sovereign or monarch.

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What is an example of Social Contract Theory?

Social contract theory says that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract.

What is the definition of social contract?

social contract, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. In primeval times, according to the theory, individuals were born into an anarchic state of nature, which was happy or unhappy according to the particular version of the theory.

What does the Social Contract theory state?

Social contract theory says that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. Some people believe that if we live according to a social contract, we can live morally by our own choice and not because a divine being requires it.

What is Social Contract Theory of government?

Social Contract Theory. Social contract theory is a political philosophy that questions the origins of society, and the legitimacy of governmental control over individual people. It is an argument that all men have an obligation to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”. Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbs made the ...

What is the main idea of the social contract theory?

Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons' moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.

What was the main purpose for Rousseau's social contract?

321–22). The stated aim of The Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority since people's interactions he saw at his time seemed to put them in a state far worse than the good one they were at in the state of nature, even though living in isolation.

What is the social contract and why is it important?

The social contract is unwritten, and is inherited at birth. It dictates that we will not break laws or certain moral codes and, in exchange, we reap the benefits of our society, namely security, survival, education and other necessities needed to live.

What is the idea of the social contract quizlet?

What is Social Contract Theory? View that people's moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract among them to form the society in which they live.

What were Rousseau's main ideas?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss Enlightenment philosopher with some radical ideas. He argued passionately for democracy, equality, liberty, and supporting the common good by any means necessary. While his ideas may be utopian (or dystopian), they are thought-provoking and can inform modern discourse.

What did Rousseau's social contract say?

The Social Contract, with its famous opening sentence 'Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains', stated instead that people could only experience true freedom if they lived in a civil society that ensured the rights and well-being of its citizens.

What is the social contract simple definition?

A social contract is an agreement, either implicit or explicit, governing the behavior of individuals and organizations within a certain context such as a workplace, a culture, a nation or a social media site.

What are the 3 main points of Rousseau's social contract?

Thus, three stages described by Rousseau, are investigated: (a) the state of nature, where man is free and independent, (b) society, in which man is oppressed and dependent on others, and (c) the state under the Social Contract, in which, ironically, man becomes free through obligation; he is only independent through ...

What is a social contract example?

Social contracts can be explicit, such as laws, or implicit, such as raising one's hand in class to speak. The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America's social contract.

Which individual proposed the idea of the social contract quizlet?

Locke was an English theorist of the seventeenth century. Along with Thomas Hobbes, he proposed a social contract theory of government. This theory argued that all individuals are free and equal by natural right and in return, this freedom required that all men and women give their consent to be governed.

What is the purpose of government according to the social contract theory quizlet?

social contract theory; this theory holds that the people chose to give the state enough power to promote the well-being of everyone and that all political power comes from the will of the people.

What is John Locke's social contract theory quizlet?

Social Contract. John Locke's idea. It was an agreement which had a purpose that the government is to protect the people's natural rights in exchange for that protection, the people give up their less important freedoms.

What was the impact of Rousseau's idea?

Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. His thought marked the end of the European Enlightenment (the “Age of Reason”). He propelled political and ethical thinking into new channels. His reforms revolutionized taste, first in music, then in the other arts.

What does Rousseau say about slavery in the social contract?

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them: they love their servitude, as the comrades of Ulysses loved their brutish condition. If then there are slaves by nature, it is because there have been slaves against nature.

What was Rousseau's idea of government quizlet?

Rousseau believed that the only good government was one that was freely formed by the people and guided by the "general will" of society—a direct democracy. He believed that laws existed to preserve social order, not to avenge crimes.

What is Rousseau's view on the right of the strongest as discussed in the social contract?

Rousseau states that there is no “right of the strongest.” Strength itself only forces obedience through fear, but it cannot possibly “produce morality.” If “the strongest [were] always right,” the concept of “rights” would be meaningless: anyone who says it is right to “obey those in power” really means that people ...

The Social Contract

Man is in chains wherever there is tyranny and oppression be it in a monarchy, theocracy, dictatorship, or republic. Civil society substitutes a mo...

What two works did Rousseau produce about Social Contract Theory ?

The New Eloise (1761) and Émile.

It can be inferred from Passage 1 that the Age of Reason

In the age of reason, humanity was in a state of transition.

What is sovereign power?

Sovereignty is the general will . The general will is the voice of the citizens. In their hands, all social power is vested. The purpose of the Sovereign is to secure freedom and equality for all. Fulfilling this role is what gives the Sovereign moral legitimacy. According to Rousseau, the general will is an infallible voice of the public good, and it is the Sovereign's obligation to protect it. While the general will organizes the form of government and creates laws, for example, it is neutral with respect to the particularities; its sole aim is the public good. The general will is, effectively, an idea. It is formalized and embodied by sovereignty and the political body that assembles to debate and legislate.

What does Rousseau believe about human nature?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau believes certain concepts and activities taken for granted in modern life are not natural to human beings. These include property, inequality, and law. In the state of nature, human beings are free and equal. They are free in that they can do what they want, and they are moral equals in that no one person's liberty is superior to another's. This freedom is essentially freedom from the coercive effects of a civil society governed by one or more people who do not have their subjects' best interests in mind. Moreover, people are free from the arbitrary requirements of society. Expectations to conform to societal norms and contrived needs create psychological dependency and make people vulnerable to domination. That dependency is not limited to the weak and poor, it is also created by luxury and wealth.

Does Rousseau reconcile the individual will and the general will?

Rousseau still has to reconcile what appears to be a potential conflict between the individual will and the general will. His accounts of the general will and sovereignty offer a synthesis. Although sovereignty can override the individual will, there is no inconsistency, to the extent that this will is also a part of the general will and the general will is formalized in the Sovereign.

What is the purpose of the social contract?

Theories of the social contract differed according to their purpose: some were designed to justify the power of the sovereign, while others were intended to safeguard the individual from oppression by a sovereign who was all too powerful.

Which theorists believed in the social contract?

The more perceptive social-contract theorists, including Hobbes, invariably recognized that their concepts of the social contract and the state of nature were unhistorical and that they could be justified only as hypotheses useful for the clarification of timeless political problems.

What is Hobbes' authority?

For Hobbes the authority of the sovereign is absolute, in the sense that no authority is above the sovereign, whose will is law. That, however, does not mean that the power of the sovereign is all-encompassing: subjects remain free to act as they please in cases in which the sovereign is silent (in other words, when the law does not address the action concerned). The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature and enter civil society, but the former remains a threat and returns as soon as governmental power collapses. Because the power of Leviathan (the political state) is uncontested, however, its collapse is very unlikely and occurs only when it is no longer able to protect its subjects.

What did Rousseau believe about nature?

Rousseau, in Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract ), held that in the state of nature humans were unwarlike and somewhat undeveloped in their reasoning powers and sense of morality and responsibility.

What is contractual theory?

Social contract, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. In primeval times, according to the theory, individuals were born into an anarchic state of nature, ...

What is political philosophy?

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Social contract, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, ...

Who were the social contract philosophers?

Although similar ideas can be traced to the Greek Sophists, social-contract theories had their greatest currency in the 17th and 18th centuries and are associated with such philosophers as the Englishmen Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and the Frenchman Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

What is social contract theory?

Social contract theory says that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. Some people believe that if we live according to a social contract, we can live morally by our own choice and not because a divine being requires it. Over the centuries, philosophers as far back as ...

Who suggested that morality is the set of rules governing behavior that rational people accept?

Philosopher Stuart Rachels suggests that morality is the set of rules governing behavior that rational people accept, on the condition that others accept them too.

Is the Constitution an explicit example of a social contract?

Social contracts can be explicit, such as laws, or implicit, such as raising one’s hand in class to speak. The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract.

What is the social contract Rousseau begins with?

The Social Contract Summary. Rousseau begins The Social Contract with the notable phrase "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.". Because these chains are not found in the state of nature, they must be constructions of convention. Rousseau thus seeks the basis for a legitimate, political authority in which people must give up their ...

Which philosophers argued that the establishment of government is not a contract?

Rousseau asserts that the establishment of government is not, as philosophers such as Hobbes and Grotius have argued, a contract. The sovereign employs the government as a representative of the people in charge ...

What is the system of beliefs Rousseau calls civil religion?

This system of beliefs, which Rousseau calls "civil religion, " consists of belief in a God and the afterlife, universal justice, and respect for the sanctity of the social contract.

What is Rousseau's solution to the problem of legitimate authority?

Rousseau's solution to the problem of legitimate authority is the "social contract," an agreement by which the people band together for their mutual preservation. This act of association creates a collective body called the "sovereign.". The sovereign is the supreme authority in the state, and has its own life and will.

What is the goal of legislation?

The goal of legislation is to protect liberty and equality and to promote the common good. However, the people may not always know how to pursue the common good and may need the help of a legislator to guide them in lawmaking.

What is the sovereign's interest?

The sovereign's interest, or the "general will," always promotes the common good. This is in contrast to the private will of each citizen, which strives only for personal benefit. The law expresses the general will, and must only make regulations that affect the entire populace.

What type of government does the sovereign have?

There are three main types of government: democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. The type is chosen based on several factors, including population and climate.

Why did Rousseau describe civil society?

Civil society, as Rousseau described it in the Discourse, came into being to serve two purposes: to provide peace for everyone and to ensure the right to property for anyone lucky enough to have possessions. It was thus of some advantage to everyone, but mostly to the advantage of the rich, since it transformed their de facto ownership into rightful ownership and kept the poor dispossessed. It was, indeed, a somewhat fraudulent social contract, since the poor got so much less out of it than did the rich.

What was Rousseau's conception of citizenship?

Rousseau’s conception of citizenship was much more organic and much less individualistic than Locke’s. The surrender of independence, or natural liberty, for political liberty meant that all individual rights, including property rights, are subordinate to the general will. For Rousseau the state is a moral person whose life is the union of its members, whose laws are acts of the general will, and whose end is the liberty and equality of its citizens. It follows that when any government usurps the power of the people, the social contract is broken; and not only are the citizens no longer compelled to obey, but they also have an obligation to rebel.

What did Rousseau believe about liberty?

But Rousseau also believed in the possibility of a genuine social contract, one in which people would receive in exchange for their independence a better kind of freedom, namely true political, or republican, liberty. As described in Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract ), such liberty is to be found in obedience to what Rousseau called the volonté générale (“ general will ”)—a collectively held will that aims at the common good or the common interest.

What is the moral dimension of Locke's power?

Locke’s definition of political power has an immediate moral dimension. It is a “right” of making laws and enforcing them for “the public good.” Power for Locke never simply means “capacity” but always “morally sanctioned capacity.” Morality pervades the whole arrangement of society,…

What did Rousseau say about the state of nature?

Rousseau, in Discours sur l’origine de l’inegalité (1755; Discourse on the Origin of Inequality ), held that in the state of nature humans were solitary but also healthy, happy, good, and free. What Rousseau called “nascent societies” were formed when human began to live together as families and neighbours; that development, however, gave rise to negative and destructive passions such as jealousy and pride, which in turn fostered social inequality and human vice. The introduction of private property marked a further step toward inequality, since it made law and government necessary as a means of protecting it. Rousseau lamented the “fatal” concept of property and the “horrors” that resulted from the departure from a condition in which the earth belonged to no one.

What is the social contract?

With the famous phrase, "man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains," Rousseau asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society.

How does the government exercise its sovereignty?

The people exercise their sovereignty by meeting in regular, periodic assemblies.

What does Rousseau call the collective grouping of all citizens?

Rousseau calls the collective grouping of all citizens the "sovereign," and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person. While each individual has a particular will that aims for his own best interest, the sovereign expresses the general will that aims for the common good.

Which example did Rousseau use to prove that even large states can assemble all their citizens?

To prove that even large states can assemble all their citizens, Rousseau takes the example of the Roman republic and its comitia. Rousseau recommends the establishment of a tribunate to mediate between government and sovereign and government and people. In cases of emergency, brief dictatorships may be necessary.

Why do people have social contracts?

Social contracts are occurrences where individuals came together because they were tired of living in that perpetual state. These groups would cede some of their individual rights with the purpose of having other groups be able to cede their rights. Using the warfare example from Hobbes, Group A would give up their ability to kill Group B if Group B is willing to give up the same ability.

What is the social contract theory?

Thomas Hobbes Social Contract Theory Explained. Developed in 1651, the Thomas Hobbes social contract theory that looks to address the origin of society. At the same time, it looks at the overall legitimacy of how a state has authority over an individual. According to Hobbes, individuals consent, other tacitly or explicitly, ...

Why does Hobbes believe that social contracts are necessary?

That is why Hobbes sees the social contracts that are formed between groups as such a necessity. When humanity is given freedom, it means there are no constraints. A person can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and the only way to stop them is to exercise your freedoms before they do.

What would Hobbes propose?

In doing so, Hobbes proposes, humans would be able to focus on other aspects of life instead of living in perpetual warfare.

What was the issue with Hobbes' social contract theory?

The Issue with Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory. The issue with the social contract theory that Hobbes proposed is that it would trade one area of self-interest for another. Instead of having individuals looking out for themselves, the social contracts would create state systems that were now anarchic. You’d have groups without leadership in place ...

What did Thomas Hobbes believe about the state of nature?

Thomas Hobbes believed that the lives of individuals in the state of nature, or the natural condition of mankind, is one that is poor, solitary, brutish, and short. It is a place where self-interest is present because there is an absence of any rights. This prevents social contracts from being implemented, which makes it impossible ...

Why are the first 10 amendments called the Bill of Rights?

That is why the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution are called the “Bill of Rights” and not the “Bill of Freedoms.”. Freedoms are an absence of coercion , constraint, or necessity in a choice or an action. That is why Hobbes sees the social contracts that are formed between groups as such a necessity.

What was John Locke's idea of the social contract?

One of John Locke's most famous works (several books long), it included his ideas about the separation of powers, a social contract, Initially proposed by Socrates, this was an agreement between people of a society to abide by laws and accept punishment (if you live in a society, you agree to follow the rules).

What was Socrates' idea of sacrifice?

Initially proposed by Socrates, this was an agreement between people of a society to abide by laws and accept punishment (if you live in a society , you agree to follow the rules). People agree to sacrifice some liberty in order to gain more protection. Nice work! You just studied 6 terms!

The State of Nature, Equality, and Liberty

Civil Society, Government, Law, and The Common Good

Sovereignty, The General Will, and The Will of All

Individual Freedom

• According to Rousseau, individual freedom is one's natural state. This freedom is preserved and protected by the social contract. It is also balanced against an orderly society in which the good of all is protected. So, from the standpoint of the Sovereign, the imperative is that the individual will be one and the same as the general will—or at the...

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