We explain what the social contract is and what were the contributions of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to this theory.
What is the social contract?
In political philosophy, legal theory and other related disciplines, a social contract is called a political theory that explains the origin and purpose of the State as well as Human Rights.
It is based on the idea that there is a great agreement in society in relation to its rights, duties and the existence of a State endowed with authority to govern within the framework of a set of laws and established moral norms. More simply put, the social contract It is the agreement between the citizens of the society that gave birth to the State.
The main formulation of this theory It is attributed to the Swiss philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). This author was one of the main voices of the European Enlightenment, whose ideas paved the way for the French Revolution of 1789.
However, it is possible to trace similar ideas in works as old as The Republic of the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC) or the Maximum capitals by Epicurus (341-279 BC), about the violent and selfish nature from which human beings come and how it was essential to establish a pact of coexistence in order to found civilization.
Other later contributors were the English Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704), as we will see later.
The pact described in the social contract is not necessarily an explicit pact, that is, we cannot trace the signing of said agreement in the history of humanity. On the contrary, It is a tacit, imaginary and social agreement.
The State was born in these circumstances, thought of as the guarantor of citizen rights and the authority that claims duties, although the way of understanding said State has been very different and has changed a lot throughout the history of humanity.
Contributions to the social contract of Thomas Hobbes
The first philosopher who formally attempted a contractualist work (that is, defense of the social contract) was Hobbes, in his famous Leviathan (1651), written during a period of civil war in England.
Hobbes questions who should exercise the sovereignty of the State whether the King or Parliament. Finally, he comes to the conclusion that some social contract is always necessary to guarantee peace among citizens, that is, an “artificial” order.
Hobbes reflects that human beings are all equal before nature, since they are ultimately endowed with a self-preservation instinct that does not distinguish between social classes or political reasons. That instinct condemns humans to a perpetual state of war or competition.
Therefore, the State as a central power is necessary. For your creation Citizens must renounce their natural right to violence, in order to sustain peace.
In Hobbes' imagination, the State is represented by Leviathan, a biblical monster, since it would be a supreme, invincible force, only just and necessary.
Contributions to John Locke's social contract
In the case of Locke, the work that collects his thoughts on the social contract is Two essays on civil government (1690). There he starts from a deeply Christian conception of the human being: the human being is a creature of God, whose life does not belong to himself but to the creator.
Considered in this way, humans are not morally capable of taking control of their own existence or that of other creatures. He only has the right and duty to preserve his own life. Therefore, under the gaze of God, all men are equal in rights and sovereignty.
However, there is a need, as human beings live with their peers, to judge what to do in the event that someone violates another's right to exist, and what steps must be taken to exercise justice.
Since there is nothing like that in human nature, the social contract is born to create justice as an institution: a judge who settles the controversies inherent to the natural law of the human being, and who guarantees the basic rights for the human being, which according to Locke were life, equality, freedom and property.
In a similar way to Hobbes, Locke raises the inevitable need to sacrifice human natural law, that primitive violence that allows one to defend one's existence, so that civil society, that common judge, can do it for him.
This power cannot be held by a single authority, as in the case of absolute monarchies, but rather must be constituted by a parliament that is, a set of representatives of the community, chosen by and among it.
Finally, for Locke there are two stages of formation of the social contract: a first in which the community is created and surpasses natural law (Company formation contract) and a second in which the relationships between rulers and governed are created (Government formation contract).
Contributions to the social contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
It was Rousseau who took this thought to its peak, with The social contract (1762), taking some of Locke's individualist points, but also assuming his own distance. Rousseau dedicated himself to observing the society around him, in which absolute monarchy prevailed.
He soon reached fundamental conclusions about the bond between the sovereign and the subjects, noting that this is not produced by submission or submission, but rather the people voluntarily admit the sovereignty of the King renouncing a state of “natural innocence” to abide by the rules of society, receiving in exchange a series of benefits, typical of social exchange.
Such consent is given in the terms of what he called the social contract. For Rousseau, The human being in his natural state was innocent, he knew no evil and he only knew two basic feelings: self-love, that is, self-protection, and disgust for the suffering of others, that is, pity.
But as they become part of a massive society, new (and false) needs emerge, leading him to create new mechanisms to satisfy them, and the more he has, the more he wants.
So, those who accumulated the greatest amount of wealth institute a social contract that protects them and perpetuates their privileges. In exchange, they offer an unjust but peaceful order, which in the long run is accepted as the only and natural order of things.
It can be seen, thus, how Rousseau's ideas served to inspire the coming French Revolution in which the Old Regime was demolished and a Republic was created. This transition represented a necessary refoundation of the social contract, to accommodate a contract more in line with the social needs of the time.
References
- “Social contract” on Wikipedia.
- “Social contract” in Filosofía.net.
- “Rousseau and the social contract” in The Historian.
- “John Locke: the social contract” (video) in Educatina.
- “Social contract” in Encyclopedia Herder.
- “The Social Contract” (video) on Khan Academy.
- “Social contract (political philosophy)” in The Encyclopedia Britannica.