Social contract

1.0 Preliminaries 1.1. Introduction “Man by nature is a political animal” . Every man is responsible in everything that surrounds him. As man’s civilization started to flourish, the rise of different ideas and perspectives began. Through the years, human civilization started to progress. Thus, civilization did not only develop the culture of ancient humans but also their intellectual capability. Through the progress of intellectual capability, man’s way of living changes. Man as an…

John Locke was an English philosopher and a great rival of the political system that prevailed during his time, absolutism. Locke believed that humans before him lived in a world where civilizations were independent, sovereign and equal. In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke says, “To understand political power aright, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they…

I truly believe that genetics are by far one of the biggest factors in determining the action and/or morals of an individual. In this debate, I personally agree with Thomas Hobbes in the idea that the nature of man is evil and as he states, “Everything humans beings voluntarily do is for pleasure or for self-preservation.” I feel this concept is heavily shown through the fact that all human beings react differently if put in the same situation. This shows that even though one's environment will…

brilliant ideas, he tried to speak about the tolerance and its inverse relation with the crime and punishment. As well, he believed that the punishment shouldn't be considered as the revenge or reproduction of divine justice but the reproduction of the social justice. The punishment is a human matter which should be…

wrong exercise of the power by law makers over minorities but he was also apprehensive about the prevailing social opinion of the majority class over minority. In his view, the second type of tyranny is even more dangerous than first one. This is because exercising of power by majority in society or wrong use of power by them is usually upheld by extreme penalties. On the other hand, social opinions of the majority is considered a little more acceptable in society and it is sometimes considered…

Rebels throughout history have posed as a threat to society through challenging societal norms and advocating for something different, a change. In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Winston Smith is a rebel who does not conform to the unconscious and homogeneous people of which society consists. Instead, Winston rebels through his acts of suspicion; however, he does not bring about reform but becomes one with society as humanity and individuality finally dissipates. The act of preserving humanity is…

Americans today tend to believe that conformity and individuality is something they can decide when to do, not realizing that they do it every day without even noticing. Often, some people view individuals as strange, weird or peculiar since they assume that being "Different” is horrific. They look upon it as something ominous. Often, It is mentioned that conformity is awful, horrible; nevertheless the truth is, we should learn when to be an individual and when to conform. Although…

John Rawls is a great proponent of the natural rights theory. With his theory of the veil of ignorance, Rawls is of the idea that everyone has some rights that accrue to them by nature. Natural right is a philosophical perspective developed by Hobbes, and it portends that all living beings have rights, and these rights would make an individual act or fail to act in a certain way. The veil of ignorance by John Rawls is premised on the inviolable rights of an individual; this makes him fall under…

Two big social events happened that pushed the colonies in America towards the Revolutionary War, the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. The Enlightenment that happened in the colonies stemmed from the Enlightenment that was also occurring in Europe, which was a movement to place a human’s capacity for reason above other factors of social status (Schultz, Mays, & Winfree, 2011). To basically summarize what was happening, at the time the Enlightenment as occurring the popular belief in…

The state is a system of authority over a group of people, usually in the arrangement of a formal government, meant to organize the people and resolve conflicts between individuals. This paper will explore the ways the state of nature justifies the creation of the state as the state of nature is the world without a government. The state of nature is the alternative to the state since it lacks a system of authority. Specifically, the Hobbesian state of nature will be used for this argument since…