Social Contract

Question 1

What is the Peace of Westphalia?

Answer 1

The trigger to secularisation

An agreement between the church and the princes

Each principality could decide its own religion

Stripped the church (religion) of its political authority

Created a lacuna: A rational source of authority for political power

Question 2

What was Grotius’s idea of the social contract?

Answer 2

It is a desire of all humankind, as naturally social beings, to live in a peaceful and well-ordered society..

Law is required for the maintenance of social order.

Question 3

What was Grotius’s theory of natural law

Answer 3

Natural law arises out of our natural intelligence

The principal components are a respect for property and an obligation to keep promises (natural rights).

Question 4

What is Hobbes’ social contract theory?

Answer 4

The social contract is a hypothetical agreement among citizens to establish a community governed by a powerful sovereign.

The power of the sovereign is necessary to ensure that humans do not descent into the undesirable state of nature (nasty, brutish, short).

Following a duty of obedience to a powerful sovereign is preferable to living in a state of nature (nasty, brutish, short).

Question 5

What is Locke’s social contract theory?

Answer 5

Governments are formed when a majority of men consent to be subordinate to the authority of government.

Government is formed to necessarily protect a person’s natural rights (property, life, liberty) from invasion from others.

Question 6

What is Rousseau’s social contract theory?

Answer 6

According to Rousseau, men form the social contract because they need to overcome problems together that they cannot overcome alone. The social contract allows man to achieve a better and more secure existence for himself.

When people enter into the social contract, they subordinate themselves and any natural rights they have to the General Will.

Question 7

What is Kant’s social contract theory?

Answer 7

The social contract enables the Universal Principle of Justice by giving the government the authority to force others to refrain from hindering the freedom of other people. Without a system of forced laws, we will inevitably invade one another’s freedom.

Hence, the social contract can be seen as a moral obligation, because of the need to give effect to the Universal Principle of Justice.

Question 8

What is Hobbes’ state of nature?

Answer 8

A solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short state;.
Man’s innate physiology and psychology means that men will always live in a state of war.

They live in a state of peril because they must always anticipate the threat of violence from each other.

Question 9

What is Locke’s state of nature?

Answer 9

The state of nature is such that man, his liberty, and his property will always be vulnerable to invasions from others.

A man is willing to part with his freedom and subject himself to the authority of the government because he wants to ensure that his natural rights, such as his rights to property, will be respected.

Question 10

What is the fundamental idea behind social contract theory?

Answer 10

That with the decline of religious authority, political authority would be derived from the consent of the governed.

Question 11

Why is consent so important in social contract theory?

Answer 11

With the demise of religious authority, consent becomes the secular source of political authority.

Question 12

How does Locke differ from Hobbes (7 ways)?

Answer 12

Locke sees humankind as a far more social animal than Hobbes does.

Locke sees individuals as possessing natural rights, (such as rights to property) which predates any legal system or state. Any state seeking to govern men must respect them.

For Locke, the state of nature is a positive condition. For Hobbes, the state of nature is an extremely undesirable condition.

Locke sees the duty of obedience to government as terminable when the government lays claim to absolute and arbitrary power.
Hobbes sees the duty as being terminable only when the government fails to maintain order.

Locke sees the social contract as a means to promote the public good (aspirational).
Hobbes sees the social contract as a means to preserve peace (passive).

Locke sees the social contract as a way to protect a community from each other.
Hobbes sees the social contract as a way to prevent the “community” from tearing itself apart.

Locke believes that men can still appeal to God when there is a conflict with the government.
Hobbes believes that the government is the highest authority men can appeal to.

Question 13

What are the 5 assumptions that Hobbes adopts for his state of nature?

Answer 13

1. Men are roughly equal in their mental and physical powers.
2. Men have conflicting desires, and the finite nature of resources is not enough to satisfy all their desires.
3. Men are forward-looking. They care about prolonging their lives.
4. Anticipation increases advantage.
5. Limited altruism. Men value their own survival more so than others.

Question 14

How is Locke similar to Grotius (3 ways)?

Answer 14

State of nature

Natural rights

Right to property

Question 15

How is Locke similar to Rousseau (2 ways)?

Answer 15

Both thinkers have a relatively positive view to the state of nature.

Both thinkers believe that men have natural rights which pre-date any legal system or state.

Question 16

Why is Rosseau so adament that individuals must give up their natural rights when they enter into a social contract?

Answer 16

Because if individuals retained some rights, “each would make his own judgment on certain points, and would soon aspire to do so on all of them”. This would mean the state of nature would remain in force.

The General Will is sacrosanct in Rosseau’s social contract theory. An all-powerful General Will is desirable because it will resolve threats of class suppression by having a higher order that is representative of all classes, not merely one class.

Question 17

What is Rosseau’s general will and why is it important?

Answer 17

The General Will expresses the interests of the community as a whole.

It is important because it takes into account all classes in society, from the wealthy to the poor and the dispossessed.

As such, because the general will is all-powerful, it can resolve any threats of class suppression by having a higher order that is representative of all classes, not merely one class.

Question 18

Why is Rosseau’s social contract considered to be ‘dramatic’?

Answer 18

Because it requires the transformation of the individual into a fully conscious citizen.

The individual emerges from the social contract radically transformed into a citizen, ‘replacing instinct by justice in his behaviour and conferring on his actions the moral quality that they had lacked before

Question 19

What is Kant’s categorical imperative?

Answer 19

A rule of conduct that is unconditional and absolute for all agents. The validity and claim of which does not depend on any desire or end.

To Kant, there is only one categorical imperative in the moral realm: Act only according to the maxim by which you can at the same time should it become a universal law.

Question 20

What is Kant’s Universal Principle of Justice?

Answer 20

Act externally so that the free use of your choice can coexist with the freedom of everyone in accordance with a universal law

Question 21

What are the two assumptions of human beings that Kant makes?

Answer 21

Kant argues that only coercive structures can secure the UPJ. This is based on two assumptions of human beings:

1. People are not sufficiently altruistic. Hence, people will limit and invade one another’s freedom if self-interest demands it.
2. People are not sufficiently scattered across the surface of Earth to avoid interaction (and thus the risk of invading each other’s freedoms) with each other.

Question 22

What is negative freedom?

Answer 22

Freedom from external constraints (eg. laws promulgated by government).

Question 23

What is positive freedom?

Answer 23

The freedom to live the life one chooses.

Question 24

How does Kant’s social contract affect negative and positive freedom?

Answer 24

The state’s use of coercion to allow the Universal Principle of Justice to be realized promotes the positive freedom of people at the expense of infringing their negative freedom.

Question 25

What is the ‘law’ in Kant’s view?

Answer 25

It is the principal device the state uses to secure positive freedom for its citizenry (aka to achieve the Universal Principle of Justice)

Question 26

How does Locke’s notion of freedom differ from Kant’s?

Answer 26

Locke’s social contract seeks to promote negative freedom by placing importance of being free from un-consented governmental intervention.

On the other hand, Kant’s social contract seeks to promote positive freedom by preventing others from infringing upon others’ freedom.

Question 27

Which social contract theorist(s) sees humans as intelligent and moral creatures?

Answer 27

Locke

Question 28

Which social contract theorist(s) sees humans as creatures primarily driven by self-preservation and self-interest?

Answer 28

Hobbes

Question 29

Why is Locke’s state of nature a positive one?

Answer 29

Humans have natural obligations: A duty of charity.

They also have natural rights: Life, liberty and property.

These natural rights and obligations predate the existence of any state or legal system.

Question 30

Which social contract theorist believes the citizens must give up their natural rights when they consent to government?

Answer 30

Rousseau

Question 31

Which social contract theorist believes the citizens do not and should not have to give up their natural rights when they consent to government?

Answer 31

Locke

Question 32

Which social contract theorist believes the citizens must give up their natural LIBERTIES when they consent to government?

Answer 32

Hobbes

Question 33

According to Hobbes, when can people terminate their obligation to obey the governent?

Answer 33

When the government is no longer able to perform its fundamental obligation of maintaining order (because this is the benefit the people had contracted to receive).

Question 34

According to Locke, when can people terminate their obligation to obey the government?

Answer 34

When the government exercises absolute and arbitrary power in breach of the citizens’ trust.