The Theoretical Perspective and Strands of the Social Contract as Espoused in the Works of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau: It’s Effects on the Contemporary Society

Abstract

It is an undeniable fact that the Social Contract theory developed at the transition period from feudalism to capitalism, whereby the feudal system – which is based on absolutism and the absolute right of kings -- was being fought. The theory came as a means of explaining and justifying the existence of governments, and that government should emerge from the will of the people. It is not, therefore, surprising that in democracies, one hears about the government of the people, by the people and for the people. The Social Contract -- as espoused by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacque Rousseau, as three dynamic thinkers, and also by a few other modern philosophical thinkers -- is a convention between men that aims to discard the proverbial “State of Nature”, whereby people are to live without government or written laws. With his famous phrase, Rousseau, in fact, says it best when he has often been quoted as pointing out that "man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains". Hobbes and Locke agree very much with Rousseau, hence they underscore in unison that modern nations do repress the physical freedom that is our birthright as human beings, and that we do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which human beings enter into civil society. Contextually, these thinkers have concretely confirmed that legitimate political authority does stem from only a social contract that can be agreed upon by all citizens of a nation for their mutual survival or preservation. Later, the theory became an impetus for as well as reflected in the English Revolution, the French Revolution and the American Revolution, which led to the declaration of American independence.

Keywords: Social Contract, Good Will, Democracy, State of Nature, Feudalism, Society, Government, Absolutism and Liberalism