The Social Contract

instead argue that the sole purpose of the state is, in fact, to protect its citizens. This is where the idea of a “social contract” plays a role. Through this contract between people and the state, individuals ensure that they are removed from the “state of nature”. That is, a life outside of a civilized state without a central authority. Once one has agreed to the social contract, they take “themselves out form that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as has been shown…

In The Racial Contract, Charles Mills expands upon social contract theory, originally proposed by Rousseau, and assesses the role of race (phenotypical, genealogical, or cultural) in its formation and function within society. In doing so, Mills goes on to assert that, “The general purpose of the Contract is always the differential privileging of the whites as a group with respect to the nonwhites as a group, the exploitation of their bodies, land, and resources, and the denial of equal…

nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is ... no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions (Locke 107).” This was thought by a great thinker named John Locke. John locke highly believed in social contract and how everybody is entitled to life, property, and liberty. John Locke’s ideas can be applied to and used for several revolutions. For example, the Syrian Revolution began in 2011 with a series of small protests inspired by the Arab…

Unlike Hobbes, Locke holds that men are capable of judging when they are unjustly treated since the reason for entering the contract is a state of war the contract is broken when the sovereign puts himself into a state of war with the people. Curiously Locke justified slavery on the grounds that those who became slaves were originally in a state of wrongful war with those who conquered them being…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke were both philosophers that influenced the Enlightenment during the 17th and 18th centuries. During this time both Rousseau and Locke created and outlined specific concepts of man, and how man lives his life in society; in doing this, both Rousseau and Locke defined different ideas of property and its purpose in society. Using the texts of Rousseau and Locke, and each philosopher’s divergent definitions of property, laws, and government it is possible to…

would be like without any social or political institutions, Rousseau brings forth the idea that without these institutions, mankind would be truly free and living without any type of dissension or conflict. Rousseau’s ideas here are based within his optimistic outlook on human nature. Unlike any of his predecessors, Rousseau believes that rooted within the heart of mankind’s nature is an inherent…

by declared and received laws and not by extemporary dictates…for than mankind will be in a far worse condition than in the State of Nature” (Locke 213). Therefore, Locke proposes that individuals empower the state through mutual agreement of social contract to enact laws that everyone is expected to obey through consent. In contrast to Hobbes, rebellion here is…

comprehend how man could consent to shifting to the formation of political society. Hobbes depicts that the need for a social contract would provide self-preservation or self- protection, without any social contract, man could not have any chance of survival. Man must be able to possess a sense or idea of peace and order, which social contract relies on. In a social contract, man must be able to sacrifice all of his rights and transfers them to for complete safety. Though Hobbes views…

and liberties of the American people. His theories include those of inalienable rights, natural rights, and social contracts (Costly). He believed in certain prerogatives people have --natural rights--that are composed of “a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society,” which is protected by the concept of inalienable rights (Tuckness). Locke also believed in a social contract that relied on consent to protect the people. In return for protection, the people would surrender…

The social contract theory attempts to explain why people give up certain freedoms and form different types of organized governments. Under the social contract theory, many people would give up rights that they held that they enjoyed under a State of Nature but ultimately gave some of the freedoms up to protect what is in their best interest. The men of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were heavily influenced by this theory and each one had their own view of the social…