Social Contract Theory (Lecture 7) Flashcards
How did Social Contract Theory originate?
Thomas Hobbes
Asked himself: what would life be like without rules?
Decided it would be a war of all against all
What are the 4 facts about human existence according to social contract theory?
1) equality of need: we all need the same resources
2) scarcity: not all resources are readily available (we need system for production and distribution)
3) essential equality of human power: no human is powerful enough to get their own way or to establish their own security (no one can win by themselves)
4) limited natural altruism: we always need to take care of ourselves first
What do we need to avoid the state of nature and achieve basic security?
1) people must agree to not harm each other
2) people must be trusted to keep their promises (reinforcement)
What do the two rules for avoiding the state of nature allow for?
Allows people to build prosperity through division of labor
Government can be established with laws, police, courts to ensure people keep their words/agreements
This is the social contract
With relation to collective action problems, what is the social contract theory?
A set of rules, mainly not harming each other and keeping promises, that keep everyone at a place where they are mostly winning and where no one is prospering by making someone else the sucker
If you try and go for the best option, position 1, you end up in position 4 because your ill be punished for breaking the social contract
What is teh reasoning as to why we should follow social contract law?
It’s in everyone’s self interest to do so
Keeps you out of the worst position and others out of the best
Things would be much worse without these rules
Why do you punish in social contract theory?
To enforce the rules so that no one pulls a fast one for the best position
Also because criminals, by violating the social contract, have removed themselves from its protection
They tried to go for one so they got four
What does social contract theory say about self sacrifice?
There is no need for you to self sacrifice
Would be inconsistent because you’d be putting yourself in a lower position, and this doesn’t align with your best interests
What are the rules of social contract theory? Why is this a flaw?
There aren’t any fixed ones, even a bad rule is better than no rule
Flaw because its not concrete, could be anything
What did John Rawls propose?
The veil of ignorance
-imagine that you are a gender less soul with no race, ethnicity, money, status, intelligence, nothing
-what universal rules would you want there to be that would benefit you if you were high in overall status but still be fair if you were less fortunate
