Jacques Derrida

“Human sensibility is the basis of the social contract,” says a key point from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s On the Social Contract. Multiple times, Rousseau brings up the nature of human beings running on the assumption that both the people and its leader will do the right thing. He brings it up when it’s about governing, when it’s about places and statuses within a family, when it’s about slavery. That’s a lot of loaded topics, coming from a white man. Let’s see if it holds up. At first, Rousseau…

The State of Nature is a concept that has been discussed by social contract theorists for many years. Both John Locke and Thomas Hobbes completed competing versions in their writings, Two Treatises of Government and Leviathan. While each differs substantially, both theorists were looking to understand and justify human nature. It is my argument that Hobbes depiction of the state of nature is more accurate because it takes into account a human beings are, at their core, selfish creatures. This…

The Social Contract Theory is an agreement between the people and the government that the people will obey the government as long as the government serves in a capacity that protects the rights of the people and furthers the good for the general will. Before we consent, we exist in the state of nature. In the state of nature, we follow natural law. Natural law comes from God. Natural law gives us our natural rights, which we are promised because of our personhood. Natural rights are rights that…

How is man described by Hobbes and Rousseau different in the State of Nature and how does it determine the nature of contract that the two write about? The debate regarding man’s natural state has been at the forefront of political philosophy for hundreds of years now. This is because a lot of philosophers have used their understanding of the natural state of man as a foundation to build their arguments on. Furthermore the understanding of man’s natural state has directly led to the formation…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is famously known for saying, “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” When Rousseau says this, he is referring to the continuous cycle of man being fully capable of free will and yet he is born into whatever circumstance he finds himself in, whether that be fortunate or unfortunate. Man is therefore either handcuffed by his limits or given a liberty to reach goals he may have, freely. Rousseau’s observance is applicable to man and his relationship to society…

In his article, “Gentle Savages and Fierce Citizens against Civilization: Unraveling Rousseau’s Paradoxes,” author Matthew Mendham further explores Shklar’s work by creating the “Shklarian Model” which is simply split between what is best for a man and what is best for a citizen as being distinct ideals (172). Mendham further elaborates on this argument by explaining the position of Leo Strauss, who argued that Rousseau’s political solution “ought to be read as merely intended for modern…

The Englightment Era The Enlightenment period was an important era in a European scholarly development of the seventeenth and eighteenth hundreds of years in which thoughts concerning God, reason, nature, and humankind were blended into a perspective that increased comprehensive consent in the West and that prompted progressive improvements in craftsmanship, rationality, and legislative issues. Vital to Enlightenment believed were the utilization and festivity of reason, the force by which…

Natessia Leverington Essay # 5 Peter Singer makes the claim that, "The major ethical traditions all accept, in some for or other, a version of the golden rule that encourages equal consideration of interest. 'Love your neighbor as yourself, ' said Jesus. 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor, ' said Rabi Hillel. Confuicious summed up his teaching in very similar terms: 'What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. ' The Mahabarata Indian epic, says:…

The Best Fit Social Contract The modern theory of the social contract comes from the theories of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, and John-Jacques Rousseau. They each had their own ideas as to what a social contract is and why it should be implemented into society. Hobbes believed that the social contract was an implied agreement among the people to give up their natural rights and bestow absolute control to a sovereign. Locke thought the social contract was an agreement between the…

John Locke and Jacques Rousseau were two of the foremost intellectuals of the seventeenth century that help ingrain the enduring theories of how man should govern themselves in their writings, “The Second Treatise of Civil Government” by John Locke, and “On the Social Contract” by Rousseau. Deriving out of these writings, we are capable to differentiate the two contradistinction philosophical thoughts that separates the two authors according to the way the citizens are contrived. Locke, who…