assignment on social contract theory

3.2 The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the central political concepts developed by Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau.
• Identify common themes in the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau.
• Illustrate the ways in which the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Smith, and Rousseau have contributed to the development of political thought.

Early Christian thinkers conceived of government as a tool for advancing and securing the Christian faith. Ultimately, many Christians concluded that the structure and function of government should be based primarily not on what human reason suggests but rather on the Bible. One early Christian thinker, Tertullian (155–220 CE), argued that the revelations of God should supersede human insights and should serve as the true foundation of political order. Human reason, according to Tertullian, must always be secondary to the Christian approach to life disclosed in scripture. In general, Tertullian’s ideas would cast a large shadow over Western political thought until the early 17th century, when thinkers such as English philosopher Thomas Hobbes once again championed greater reliance on human reason.

Thomas Hobbes

Most of the systems that emerged across Europe after the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire in the fifth century CE were monarchies that promoted and defended Christianity to justify their rule. In the mid-1600s, Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) argued that political systems should be judged based not on their adherence to and glorification of a particular religion but only on their role in securing social peace.

Hobbes argued that humans can advance what he called laws of nature , or rules based on human reason that, if all people followed them, would achieve peace and safety. However, some overarching earthly authority is needed to enforce these laws. In the absence of any political authority—what Hobbes called the state of nature —following the laws of nature would make a person vulnerable to attacks from those who did not follow them. Therefore, it would be to each individual’s advantage to authorize what Hobbes called a Leviathan —an enormously powerful governmental entity—to impose on all people a symmetrical fear of punishment if they break the laws of nature. Based on this thought experiment, Hobbes argued that individuals should embrace a social contract , agreeing among themselves to give their loyalty to a political ruler who could uphold the laws of nature with unrestricted power. 15

English philosopher and physician John Locke (1632–1704) seized on Hobbes’s concepts of the state of nature and a social contract among people, but his conception of natural laws was very different. Locke saw natural laws as a set of moral rules, discoverable by reason and based ultimately on the rationally provable existence of God, that are equally applicable to all. Unlike Hobbes, Locke saw the natural laws, and related natural rights , as placing obligations on everyone, whether or not a government imposes uniform penalties for breaking them. The natural law establishes natural rights and associated duties to others and to oneself. For Locke, one has, for example, a natural right to life, and as a result, all others have a natural duty to respect this natural right. Individuals have a duty to themselves not to commit suicide or let their own natural talents go to waste. Each individual has a duty to respect the natural rights of all other humans.

John Locke, Natural Rights

Enlightenment thinker John Locke profoundly influenced early American government.

Locke used the thought experiment of the state of nature 16 to determine what individuals who are rational but not subject to government would do. He imagined that in the state of nature each person would have the right to punish those who violated anyone’s natural rights. Locke argued that individuals in the state of nature would be entitled to own land only if they mixed it with what they inherently owned—their bodies and their bodies’ labor. However, individuals could acquire land only if doing so did not harm the ability of those who did not own land to live and prosper. 17

Locke believed that in the state of nature a society would emerge in which some owned more land than others without harming them. He argued that individuals would only put the work into owning large amounts of land if they thought they could use that land to derive a profit by developing it to produce things that others value. So, for Locke, the result of unequal land ownership would be a society in which a great number of the things people want are produced.

In the state of nature, individuals would eventually agree to create money as a means of exchange. Owners could then contract individuals to work their land in return for wages paid in money and focus even more on producing items on which people would be willing to spend their wages. Even if landowners acquired all previously unowned land, a commercial society would emerge based on the free exchange of goods and services. The net result, Locke argued, would be a high standard of living for all, one much higher than in the early stages of the state of nature. On this basis, Locke maintained that no one would be harmed by the emergence of an economic system based on private property, even if it resulted in substantial inequality.

While Locke believed that if individuals in the state of nature focused on the natural law and on the benefits of private property there would be peace and prosperity, he argued that it is rational to predict that tensions would likely emerge. Some would become jealous of those with more wealth, and the ability of each person to punish violations of the natural law would eventually lead to chaos. Therefore, rational individuals in a state of nature would agree among themselves to enter into a social contract that would preserve the rights to private property and personal freedom while transferring the power to enforce natural rights to a government whose sole purpose would be to uphold those natural rights. 18

In the state of nature, individuals would have the flexibility to determine the exact form the government should take to execute these tasks. One way to limit the possibility that the government might abuse the people’s natural rights would be through some limited degree of landowner representation in government. This would be a safeguard against abusive property taxation—a forerunner of the principle, popularized in the American colonies, that there should be no taxation without some measure of popular representation. 19

Locke contended that if the government the people created in the state of nature violated their natural rights and the natural law, the right of revolution would entitle the people to use force to punish that government and depose its rulers.

Based on his thought experiment, Locke maintained that the people should demand that existing governments protect rights, protect private property and the right to sell labor for wages, be subject to the people’s right of revolution, and fulfill their duties while minimizing the risks of violating the people’s natural rights.

Applying Locke’s Ideas to Global Trade

Locke’s writings exerted a profound influence on the emergence of the Enlightenment (1690s–1790s), a period in Western history that emphasized the ordering of social, political, and religious life solely on the basis of reason. Before the 18th century, most political regimes enacted protectionist or mercantilist policies—that is, policies that discriminated against other countries’ imports and subsidized exports. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith (1723–1790) applies to international trade Locke ’s principle that the free exchange of goods and services leads to prosperity for all. Smith argues that countries should lower their tariffs on imports, reduce subsidies for exports, and allow a free market to emerge among all nations. This, he argues, enables nations to specialize in those exports for which they have a comparative advantage , or a competitive edge over other countries in producing and selling particular goods, while affording their citizens lower prices on imports from countries that have a comparative advantage in other areas of production. As counterintuitive as that struck many at the time, reason, Smith maintains, shows that the wealth of a nation grows in proportion to its freedom of trade.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prolific philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau adopted Locke’s state of nature, less as a thought experiment and more as an actual anthropological account of human history. Rousseau argued that “man was/is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” 20 All humans have a natural right to be free and a natural compassion toward others. However, humans are enslaved by the desire for wealth and social status, and that has resulted in the creation of oppressive political regimes.

Introduction to Rousseau: The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract emerged at a time of changing relationships between the people and their rulers.

In The Social Contract , Rousseau argues that in order to liberate themselves, a group must first develop a heightened sense of collective identity as they confront a common challenge. Charismatic leaders must cultivate among the people a common religious sentiment—what Rousseau calls a civil religion —that defines citizens as brothers and sisters and teaches respect for religious differences. This civil religion would deepen the sense of collective identity among the population.

With this sense of team-spiritedness in place, the people themselves—and not merely representatives—should assemble together to determine the laws that should govern them. To guard against corruption, laws can be passed only if they apply to all, without exemptions for any particular person or group, 21 and the process of lawmaking must not involve political factions or fancy rhetoric. The people should reassemble periodically to reevaluate their laws to ensure that they serve the people under new circumstances.

Rousseau argues that the laws such an assembly would pass would secure the general will —that is, the true good of each and every person in society. These laws would reduce income inequality and institute a system of civic education that would reinforce the civic religion and seek to cultivate civic virtue, a firmly rooted disposition to hold the good of the political community above narrow self-interest.

Rousseau’s ideas have been extremely influential. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1846) asserted that the people of the United States should meet for periodic constitutional conventions, at which time the whole constitutional system should be judged anew. More recently, political leader and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has argued that the ability to amend the Constitution places a deep trust in ordinary people to revise all the laws as they see fit, as it is a long-established principle that there is no such thing as an unconstitutional constitutional amendment. In principle, anything is fair game for the amending process. 22

One can also see echoes of Rousseau in the public nature of political life. In legal cases, for example, juries must announce their verdict publicly, before the community.

Concerns similar to Rousseau’s over how religious differences within a community might undermine the pursuit of the common good arise in a number of contemporary debates, including debates over public education. In countries such as the United States that have enshrined the separation of church and state, Rousseau’s vision of a civil religion is not possible. What is possible in the United States, however, is for the government to give money to parents that they can use to enroll their children in any private (and often quite expensive) religious school they choose, a program that several states have adopted in the form of educational vouchers. Opponents of vouchers argue that public funds must be neutral with respect to any religious teachings and that the state should not subsidize access to religious education. Some voucher opponents assert that vouchers only foment a destabilizing degree of religious tension among the citizenry—a fear at the heart of Rousseau’s advocacy of a civil religion. 23

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• Book title: Introduction to Political Science
• Publication date: May 18, 2022
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-political-science/pages/3-2-the-laws-of-nature-and-the-social-contract

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Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract

The idea of the social contract goes back at least to Protagoras and Epicurus. In its recognizably modern form, however, the idea is revived by Thomas Hobbes and was later developed, in different ways, by John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. After Kant, the idea fell out of favor with political philosophers until it was resurrected by John Rawls. It is now at the heart of the work of a number of moral and political philosophers.

The basic idea seems simple: in some way, the agreement of all individuals subject to collectively enforced social arrangements shows that those arrangements have some normative property (they are legitimate, just, obligating, etc.). Even this basic idea, though, is anything but simple, and even this abstract rendering is objectionable in many ways.

To explicate the idea of the social contract we analyze contractual approaches into five elements: (1) the role of the social contract (2) the parties (3) agreement (4) the object of agreement (5) what the agreement is supposed to show.

• 1.1 The Distinctiveness of the Social Contract Approach

1.2 The Social Contract as a Model

2.1 reductionist vs. non-reductionist.

• 2.2 Idealization vs. Identification

2.3 Homogeneity vs. Heterogeneity

2.4 doxastic vs. evaluative, 3.1 consent, 3.2 bargaining, 3.3 aggregation, 3.4 equilibrium, 4. the object of agreement, 5. what does the contract show.

• 6. Conclusion: The Social Contract and Public Justification

Other Internet Resources

Related entries, 1. the role of the social contract, 1.1 distinctiveness of the social contract approach.

The aim of a social contract theory is to show that members of some society have reason to endorse and comply with the fundamental social rules, laws, institutions, and/or principles of that society. Put simply, it is concerned with public justification, i.e., “of determining whether or not a given regime is legitimate and therefore worthy of loyalty” (D’Agostino 1996, 23). The ultimate goal of state-focused social contract theories is to show that some political system can meet the challenge Alexander Hamilton raised in Federalist no. 1 of whether “men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force” (Hamilton 1788). Going further, David Gauthier argues that any system of moral constraints must be justified to those to whom it is meant to apply. “What theory of morals,” Gauthier asks, “can ever serve any useful purpose unless it can show that all the duties it recommends are truly endorsed in each individual’s reason?” (1986, 1).

The ultimate goal, then, of social contract theories is to show, in the most general sense, that social (moral, political, legal, etc.) rules can be rationally justified. This alone does not, however, distinguish the social contract from other approaches in moral and political philosophy, all of which attempt to show that moral and political rules are rationally justifiable in some sense. The true distinctiveness of the social contract approach is that justification does not rely, for its foundation, on some exogenous reason or truth. Justification is generated endogenously by rational agreement (or lack of rejection in T. M. Scanlon’s version). That is, the fact that everyone in a society, given their individual reasoning, would agree to a certain rule or principle is the critical justification for that rule or principle.

Although contract theorists differ in their account of the reasons of individuals, with some being attracted to more objectivist accounts (Scanlon 2013), most follow Hobbes in modeling individual reasons as subjective, motivationally internal, or at least agent-relative. This may be because of skepticism about moral reasons generally (Harman 1975, Gauthier 1986, Binmore 1998), a conviction about the overwhelming importance of self-interest to the social order (Hobbes 1651, Buchanan 2000 [1975], Brennan and Buchanan 1985), a concern to take seriously the disagreement of individual view in modern society (Gaus 2011a, 2016; Muldoon 2017; Moehler 2014, 2015, 2018) or because this approach is consistent with the most well-developed theories of rational choice in the social sciences (Binmore 2005, Buchanan 2000 [1975]). In any case, the reasons individuals have for agreeing to some rules or principles are importantly their own reasons, not “good reasons” from the impartial perspective. Of course, those same individuals may care about what they perceive to be the impartial good or some other non-individualistic notion—they need not be egoists—but what they care about, and so their reasons will differ from one another. This point, as Rawls highlights in his later work, is crucial to understanding political justification in a diverse society where members of a society cannot reasonably be expected to have similar conceptions of the good (Rawls 1996). Recent contractarian accounts put even greater weight on heterogeneity (Southwood 2010, Gaus 2016, Muldoon 2017, Moehler 2018, Sugden 2018).

The social contract is a model of rational justification that transforms the problem of justification (what reasons individuals have) into a problem of deliberation (what rules they will agree to). As Rawls argues:

[T]he question of justification is settled by working out a problem of deliberation: we have to ascertain which principles it would be rational to adopt given the contractual situation. This connects the theory of justice with the theory of rational choice (Rawls 1999, 16).

Justification is not a “mere proof” (Rawls 1999a 508), nor is it reasoning from given or generally accepted premises to conclusions about political legitimacy or morality (Rawls 1980, p. 518). Rather, the contractual model makes explicit the reasoning that connects our standpoint as persons with determinate interests and goals to our standpoint as citizens.

At the simplest level, models take something complex and make it simpler. Along these lines, both the economist Ariel Rubinstein (2012) and the philosopher Nancy Cartwright (1991) compare models to fables. Fables are stories that communicate some important lesson in a simple, easy-to-understand fashion. Fables, like models, communicate important general rules through particular, though fictional, cases.

Models involve abstraction and idealization, but they do more than that: they help us see what our key assumptions are, identify the factors that we see as relevant (Gaus 2016, xv-xvii). Models, as techniques of idealization, do more than abstract (Weisberg 2007a, 2013). Consider the periodic table of the elements. It is an abstraction, but not a model according to Michael Weisberg. He calls abstractions like the periodic table abstract direct representations to distinguish them from models (2007b). Modeling seeks to isolate the important features of the target phenomena, allowing the modeler to understand and manipulate important elements of the phenomena in simulations. John Rawls’s representatives to the original position, for instance, are not only abstractions of real persons. They are idealizations that isolate particular aspects of persons that are relevant to justification as a choice, specifically their thin theory of rationality, and their values (in the form of primary goods). Isolating these features is important for modeling the agreement procedure in Rawls’s theory.

Given this, we can think of social contract theories as having a general schematic form. Social contract theories are models of justification with several general parameters that are set differently in different theories. What distinguishes contractarian theories is how they specify these general parameters (Thrasher 2019). The goal of the model is to represent our reasons for endorsing and complying with some set of social rules, principles, or norms. This is done by showing that our representatives in the model would agree to a given set of these rules, principles, or norms in a suitably constructed choice situation. What “suitably constructed” means here will depend on the other parameters in the model.

Critically, there are two sets of relevant individuals ( N and N * ). The first set is the representative choosers ( N ) constructed in the “device of representation” such as the original position (Rawls 1996, 27). The second set ( N * ) is composed of real individuals whose terms of interaction are to be guided by the contract/agreement. If the deliberations of the contractors ( N ) are to be relevant to the actual participants ( N* ), the reasoning of the former must, in some way, be shared by the latter. There is, however, considerable debate about what it means for reasons to be shared in this sense (see Public Reason and Public Justificatio n). The other main parameter in the model is the deliberative setting ( M ), in which the model choosers ( N ) endorse some rules, principles, or norms ( R ).

Given all of this, we can identify a general model of social contract theories:

General Model of the Social Contract: N chooses R in M and this gives N* reason to endorse and comply with R in the real world insofar as the reasons N has for choosing R in M can be shared by N* .

Each of these parameters ( N,M,R,N* ) can be specified in any number of ways. The shape of a particular contractual theory depends on the precise way these parameters are set in the theory.

2. Modeling the Parties

How contract theorists model the representative choosers ( N ) is determined by our (actual) justificatory problem and what is relevant to solving it. A major divide among contemporary social contract theories thus involves defining the justificatory problem. A distinction is often drawn between the Hobbesian/Lockean (“ contractarian ”) and Rousseavian/Kantian (“ contractualist ”) interpretations of the justificatory problem. These categories are imprecise, and there is often as much difference within these two approaches as between them, yet, nevertheless, the distinction can be useful for isolating some key disputes in contemporary social contract theory.

Among those “contractarians” who— very roughly—can be called followers of Hobbes and/or Locke, the crucial justificatory task is, as Gauthier (1991, 16) puts it, to resolve the “foundational crisis” of morality:

From the standpoint of the agent, moral considerations present themselves as constraining his choices and action, in ways independent of his desires, aims, and interests…. And so we ask, what reason can a person have for recognizing and accepting a constraint that is independent of his desires and interests? … [W]hat justifies paying attention to morality, rather than dismissing it as an appendage of outworn beliefs?

If our justificatory problem is not simply to understand what morality requires, but whether morality ought to be paid attention to, or instead dismissed as a superstition based on outmoded metaphysical theories, then obviously the parties to the agreement must not employ moral judgments in their reasoning. Another version of this concern is Gregory Kavka’s (1984) description of the project to reconcile morality with prudence. On both these accounts, the aim of the contract is to show that commitment to morality is an effective way to further one’s non-moral aims and interests, answering the question “why be moral?” The political version of this project, is similar, though the target of justification is a set of political rules or constitution rather than morality generally (Buchanan 2000[1975], Coleman 1985, Kavka 1986, Sugden 2018). This “contractarian” project is reductionist in a pretty straightforward sense: it derives moral or political reasons from non-moral ones. Or, to use Rawls’s terminology, it attempts to generate the reasonable out of the rational (1996, 53).

The reductionist approach is appealing for several reasons. First, insofar as we doubt the normative basis of moral reasons, such a reductionist strategy promises to ground morality—or at least a very basic version of it—on the prosaic normativity of the basic requirements of instrumentalist practical rationality (Moehler 2018). The justificatory question “why be moral?” is transformed into the less troubling question “why be rational?” Second, even if we recognize that moral reasons are, in some sense, genuine, contractarians like Kavka also want to show that prudent individuals, not independently motivated by morality would have reason to reflectively endorse morality. Furthermore, if we have reason to suspect that some segment of the population is, in fact, knavish then we have good defensive reasons based on stability to build our social institutions and morality so as to restrain those who are only motivated by prudence, even if we suspect that most persons are not so motivated. Geoffrey Brennan and James Buchanan argue that a version of Gresham’s law holds in political and social institutions that “bad behavior drives out good and that all persons will be led themselves by even the presence of a few self-seekers to adopt self-interested behavior” (2008 [1985], 68). We need not think people are mostly self-seeking to think that social institutions and morality should be justified to and restrain those who are.

On the other hand, “contractualists,” such as Rawls, John Harsanyi (1977), Thomas Scanlon (1998), Stephen Darwall (2006), Nicholas Southwood (2010) and Gerald Gaus (2011) attribute ethical or political values to the deliberative parties, as well as a much more substantive, non-instrumentalist form of practical reasoning. The kinds of surrogates that model the justificatory problem are already so situated that their deliberations will be framed by ethico-political considerations. The agents’ deliberations are not, as with the Hobbesian theorists, carried out in purely prudential or instrumentalist terms, but they are subject to the ‘veil of ignorance’ or other substantive conditions. Here the core justificatory problem is not whether the very idea of moral and political constraints makes sense, but what sorts of moral or political principles meet certain basic moral demands, such as treating all as free and equal moral persons, or not subjecting any person to the will or judgment of another (Reiman 1990, chap. 1). This approach, then, is non-reductionist in the sense that justification is not derived from the non-moral.

A benefit of the non-reductive approach is that the choosers in the contractual procedure ( N ) share many of the normative concerns of their actual counterparts ( N* ). This should ensure a closer normative link between the two parties and allow for the contract to generate a thicker, more substantive morality, presumably closer to that already held by N* . Whether this is so, however, depends on how closely the non-reductionist model of rationality is to the reasoning of actual individuals.

At this point, the debate seems to be centered on two positions, which we might call the robustness and sensitivity positions. According to the proponents of robustness, whatever else moral agents may disagree about, we can safely assume that they would all be committed to basic standards of rationality (Moehler 2013, 2017, 2018). We should thus suppose this same basic, shared conception of rationality and agency: when people fall short of more moralistic ideals and virtue, the contract will still function. It will be robust. According to this view, we are better off following Hume (1741) in assuming every person to be a knave, even though that maxim is false in fact.

The sensitivity position rejects this, holding that, if, in fact, individuals in N* are not resolutely self-interested, the problems of N , resolutely self-interested individuals, and their contractual solutions, will be inappropriate to N* . Perhaps whereas N* can count on social trust, the self-interested contractors will find it elusive and arrive at second-best alternatives that trusting folks would find silly and inefficient. Indeed, the sensitivity theorist may insist that even if the self-interested agents can talk themselves into acting as moral agents they do so for the wrong sort of reasons (Gaus 2011, 185ff).

2.2 Idealization and Identification

The core idea of social contract theories, we have been stressing, is that the deliberation of the parties is supposed to model the justificatory problem of ordinary moral agents and citizens. Now this pulls social contract theories in two opposing directions. On the one hand, if the deliberations of the hypothetical parties are to model our problem and their conclusions are to be of relevance to us, the parties must be similar to us. The closer the parties are to “you and me” the better their deliberations will model you and me, and be of relevance to us. On the other hand, the point of contract theories is to make headway on our justificatory problem by constructing parties that are models of you and me, suggesting that some idealization is necessary and salutary in constructing a model of justification. To recognize that some forms of idealization are problematic does not imply that we should embrace what Gaus has called “justificatory populism” that every person in society must actually assent to the social and moral institutions in question (Gaus 1996, 130–131). Such a standard would take us back to the older social contract tradition based on direct consent and as we argue in §3, modern contract theories are concerned with appeals to our reason, not our self-binding power of consent.

Despite possible problems, there are two important motivations behind idealization in the modeling of the deliberative parties. First, you and I, as we now are, may be confused about what considerations are relevant to our justificatory problem. We have biases and false beliefs; to make progress on solving our problem of justification we wish, as far as possible, to see what the result would be if we only reasoned correctly from sound and relevant premises. So in constructing the hypothetical parties we wish to idealize them in this way. Ideal deliberation theorists like Jürgen Habermas (1985) and Southwood (2010), in their different ways, are deeply concerned with this reason for idealization. On the face of it, such idealization does not seem especially troublesome, since our ultimate concern is with what is justified, and so we want the deliberations of the parties to track good reasons. But if we idealize too far from individuals and citizens as they presently are (e.g., suppose we posit that they are fully rational in the sense that they know all the implications of all their beliefs and have perfect information) their deliberations may not help much in solving our justificatory problems. We will not be able to identify with their solutions (Suikkanen 2014, Southwood 2019). For example, suppose that hyper-rational and perfectly informed parties would have no religious beliefs, so they would not be concerned with freedom of religion or the role of religion of political decision making. But our problem is that among tolerably reasonable but far from perfectly rational citizens, pluralism of religious belief is inescapable. Consequently, to gain insight into the justificatory problem among citizens of limited rationality, the parties must model our imperfect rationality.

Social contract theories model representative choosers ( N ) so as to render the choice situation determinate. This goal of determinacy, however, can have the effect of eliminating the pluralism of the parties that was the original impetus for contracting in the first place. In his Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy Rawls tells us that “a normalization of interests attributed to the parties” is “common to social contract doctrines” and it is necessary to unify the perspectives of the different parties so as to construct a “shared point of view” (2007, 226). Here Rawls seems to be suggesting that to achieve determinacy in the contract procedure it is necessary to “normalize” the perspectives of the parties.

The problem is this. Suppose that the parties to the contract closely model real agents, and so they have diverse bases for their deliberations—religious, secular, perfectionist, and so on. In this case, it is hard to see how the contract theorist can get a determinate result. Just as you and I disagree, so will the parties. Rawls (1999, 121) acknowledges that his restrictions on particular information in the original position are necessary to achieve a determinate result. If we exclude “knowledge of those contingencies which set men at odds …. ” then since “everyone is equally rational and similarly situated, each is convinced by the same arguments”(Rawls 1999, 17, 120). Gaus (2011a, 36–47) has argued that a determinative result can only be generated by an implausibly high degree of abstraction, in which the basic pluralism of evaluative standards—the core of our justificatory problem—is abstracted away. Thus, on Gaus’s view, modelings of the parties that make them anything approaching representations of real people will only be able to generate a non-singleton set of eligible social contracts. The parties might agree that some social contracts are better than none, but they will disagree on their ordering of possible social contracts. This conclusion, refined and developed in (Gaus 2011a, Part Two) connects the traditional problem of indeterminacy in the contract procedure (see also Hardin 2003) with the contemporary, technical problem of equilibrium selection in games (see Vanderschraaf 2005). A topic we will explore more in §3 below.

It is possible, however, that determinacy may actually require diversity in the perspective of the deliberative parties in a way that Rawls and others like Harsanyi didn’t expect. The reason for this is simple, though the proof is somewhat complex. Normalizing the perspectives of the parties assumes that there is one stable point of view that has all of the relevant information necessary for generating a stable and determinate set of social rules. There is no reason, antecedently, to think that such a perspective can be found, however. Instead, if we recognize that there are epistemic gains to be had from a “division of cognitive labor” there is good reason to prefer a diverse rather than normalized idealization of the parties to the contract (see: Weisberg and Muldoon 2009, Gaus 2016, Muldoon 2017, Muldoon 2017a, Muldoon 2018). There is reason to conclude that if we wish to discover social contracts that best achieve a set of interrelated normative desiderata (e.g., liberty, equality, welfare, etc.), a deliberative process that draws on a diversity of perspectives will outperform one based on a strict normalization of perspectives (Gaus 2011b, 2016; Thrasher 2020).

Any representation of the reasoning of the parties will have two elements that need to be specified: 1) doxastic and 2) evaluative. These elements, when combined, create a complete model that will specify how and why representatives in the contractual model choose or agree to some set of social rules. The first (doxastic) is the specification of everything the representatives in the original position know or at least believe. Choice in the contractual model in the broadest sense, is an attempt by the parties to choose a set of rules that they expect will be better than in some baseline condition, such as “generalized egoism” (Rawls, 1999: 127) a “state of nature” (Hobbes 1651) or the rules that they currently have (Binmore, 2005; Buchanan 2000 [1975]). To do this, they need representations of the baseline and of state of the world under candidate set of rules). Without either of these doxastic representations, the choice problem would be indeterminate. Rawls famously imposes severe doxastic constraints on his parties to the social contract by imposing a thick veil of ignorance that eliminates information about the specific details of each individual and the world they live in. James Buchanan imposes a similar, but less restrictive “veil of uncertainty” on his representative choosers (Buchanan and Tullock 1965 [1962]; Buchanan 1975; see also Rawls, 1958).

In addition to specifying what the representatives believe to be the case about the world and the results of their agreement, there must also be some standard by which the representative parties can evaluate different contractual possibilities. They must be able to rank the options on the basis of their values, whatever those may be. Rawls models parties to the contractual situation as, at least initially, having only one metric of value: primary goods. They choose the conception of justice they do insofar as they believe it will likely generate the most primary goods for them and their descendants. This specification of the evaluative parameter is uniform across choosers and therefore, choice in the original position can be modeled as the choice of one individual. Insofar as there is evaluative diversity between the representatives, more complex models of agreement will be needed (see §3). If we think in terms of decision theory, the doxastic specification individuates the initial state of affairs and the outcomes of the contractual model, while the specification of the evaluative elements gives each representative party a ranking of the outcomes expected to result from the choice of any given set of rules. Once these elements are specified, we have a model of the parties to the contract.

3. Modeling Agreement

Social contract theories fundamentally differ in whether the parties reason differently or the same. As we have seen (§2.3) in Rawls’s Original Position, everyone reasons the same: the collective choice problem is reduced to the choice of one individual. Any one person’s decision is a proxy for everyone else. In social contracts of this sort, the description of the parties (their motivation, the conditions under which they choose) does all the work: once we have fully specified the reasoning of one party, the contract has been identified.

The alternative view is that, even after we have specified the parties (including their rationality, values and information), they continue to disagree in their rankings of possible social contracts. On this view, the contract only has a determinate result if there is some way to commensurate the different rankings of each individual to yield an agreement (D’Agostino 2003). We can distinguish four basic agreement mechanisms of doing this.

The traditional social contract views of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau crucially relied on the idea of consent. For Locke only “consent of Free-men” could make them members of the government (Locke 1689, §117). In the hands of these theorists—and in much ordinary discourse—the idea of “consent” implies a normative power to bind oneself. When one reaches “the age of consent” one is empowered to make certain sorts of binding agreements—contracts. By putting consent at the center of their contracts these early modern contract theorists (1) were clearly supposing that individuals had basic normative powers over themselves (e.g. self-ownership) before they entered into the social contract (a point that Hume (1748) stressed), and (2) brought the question of political obligation to the fore. If the parties have the power to bind themselves by exercising this normative power, then the upshot of the social contract was obligation . As Hobbes (1651, 81 [chap xiv,¶7) insisted, covenants bind; that is why they are “artificial chains” (1651, 138 [chap. xxi, ¶5).

Both of these considerations have come under attack in contemporary social contract theories, especially the second. According to Buchanan, the key development of recent social contract theory has been to distinguish the question of what generates political obligation ( the key concern of the consent tradition in social contract thought) from the question of what constitutional orders or social institutions are mutually beneficial and stable over time (1965). The nature of a person’s duty to abide by the law or social rules is a matter of morality as it pertains to individuals (Rawls 1999, 293ff), while the design and justification of political and social institutions is a question of public or social morality. Thus, in Buchanan’s view, a crucial feature of more recent contractual thought has been to refocus political philosophy on public or social morality rather than individual obligation. In most modern social contract theories, including Rawls’s, consent and obligation play almost no role whatsoever.

Although contemporary social contract theorists still sometimes employ the language of consent, the core idea of contemporary social contract theory is agreement . “Social contract views work from the intuitive idea of agreement” (Freeman 2007a, 17). One can endorse or agree to a principle without that act of endorsement in any way binding one to obey. Social contract theorists as diverse as Samuel Freeman and Jan Narveson (1988, 148) see the act of agreement as indicating what reasons we have; agreement is a “test” or a heuristic (see §5). The “role of unanimous collective agreement” is in showing “what we have reasons to do in our social and political relations” (Freeman 2007, 19). Thus understood, the agreement is not itself a binding act—it is not a performative that somehow creates obligation—but is reason-revealing (Lessnoff 1986). If individuals are rational, what they agree to reflects the reasons they have. In contemporary contract theories such as Rawls’s, the problem of justification takes center stage. Rawls’s revival of social contract theory in A Theory of Justice thus did not base obligations on consent, though the apparatus of an “original agreement” persisted. Recall that for Rawls (1999, 16) the aim is to settle “the question of justification … by working out a problem of deliberation.”

Given that the problem of justification has taken center stage, the second aspect of contemporary social contract thinking appears to fall into place: its reliance on models of counterfactual agreement. The aim is to model the reasons of citizens, and so we ask what they would agree to under conditions in which their agreements would be expected to track their reasons. Contemporary contract theory is, characteristically, doubly counterfactual. Certainly, no prominent theorist thinks that questions of justification are settled by an actual survey of attitudes towards existing social arrangements, and are not settled until such a survey has been carried out. The question, then, is not “Are these arrangements presently the object of an actual agreement among citizens?” (If this were the question, the answer would typically be “No”.) The question, rather, is “ Would these arrangements be the object of an agreement if citizens were surveyed?” Although both of the questions are, in some sense, susceptible to an empirical reading, only the latter is in play in present-day theorizing. The contract nowadays is always counterfactual in at least this first sense.

There is a reading of the (first-order) counterfactual question, “Would R be the object of agreement if___” which, as indicated, is still resolutely empirical in some sense. This is the reading where what is required of the theorist is that she try to determine what an actual survey of actual citizens would reveal about their actual attitudes towards their system of social arrangements. (This is seldom done, of course; the theorist does it in her imagination. See, though, Klosko 2000). But there is another interpretation that is more widely accepted in the contemporary context. On this reading, the question is no longer a counterfactual question about actual reactions; it is, rather, a counterfactual question about counterfactual reactions—it is, as we have said, doubly counterfactual. Framing the question is the first counterfactual element: “Would R be the object of agreement if they were surveyed?” Framed by this question is the second counterfactual element, one which involves the citizens, who are no longer treated empirically, i.e. taken as given, but are, instead, themselves considered from a counterfactual point of view—as they would be if (typically) they were better informed or more impartial, etc. The question for most contemporary contract theorists, then, is, roughly: “If we surveyed the idealized surrogates of the actual citizens in this polity, what social arrangements would be the object of an agreement among them?”

Famously, Ronald Dworkin (1975) has objected that a (doubly) hypothetical agreement cannot bind any actual person. For the hypothetical analysis to make sense, it must be shown that hypothetical persons in the contract can agree to endorse and comply with some principle regulating social arrangements. Suppose that it could be shown that your surrogate (a better informed, more impartial version of you) would agree to a principle. What has that to do with you? Where this second-stage hypothetical analysis is employed, it seems to be proposed that you can be bound by agreements that others , different from you, would have made. While it might (though it needn’t) be reasonable to suppose that you can be bound by agreements that you would yourself have entered into if, given the opportunity, it seems crazy to think that you can be bound by agreements that, demonstrably, you wouldn’t have made even if you had been asked.

This criticism is decisive, however, only if the hypothetical social contract is supposed to invoke your normative power to self-bind via consent. That your surrogate employs her power to self-bind would not mean that you had employed your power. Again, though, the power to obligate oneself is not typically invoked in the contemporary social contract: the problem of deliberation is supposed to help us make headway on the problem of justification. So the question for contemporary hypothetical contract theories is whether the hypothetical agreement of your surrogate tracks your reasons to accept social arrangements, a very different issue (Stark 2000).

This argument has been revived by Jussi Suikkanen (2014) as the claim that certain forms of contract theory, most notably Southwood’s (2010) “deliberative” contractualism, commit the conditional fallacy. The conditional fallacy is a specific version of the problem we are considering here, namely that a conditional with counterfactual agents, will not necessarily apply if the counterfactual agents are sufficiently different from the real ones it is meant to apply to. In response, Southwood (2019) develops what he calls an “advice model” of contractualism wherein we take the counterfactual contractors to generate reasons that should appeal to us as advice from a more thoughtful, idealized version of ourselves, along lines similar to Michael Smith’s (1994) ideal advisor theory of moral reasons. Thrasher (2019) raises a different but related concern that segmented choice in the model of agreement can create outcomes that are not rationalizable to the parties, since they are the result of path-dependent processes.

As we have argued, contemporary social contract theory rely on hypothetical or counterfactual agreement, rather than actual agreement. In one sense this is certainly the case. However, in many ways the “hypothetical/actual” divide is artificial: the counterfactual agreement is meant to model, and provide the basis for, actual agreement. All models are counterfactual Understanding contemporary social contract theory is best achieved, not through insisting on the distinction between actual and hypothetical contracts, but by grasping the interplay of the counterfactual and the actual in the model of agreement.

Rawls (1995) is especially clear on this point in his explication of his model of agreement in response to Habermas. There he distinguishes between three different perspectives relevant to the assessment of the model (1996, 28):

• the parties to the deliberative model
• persons in a well-ordered society

The agreement of the parties in the deliberative model is certainly counterfactual in the two-fold sense we have analyzed: a counterfactual agreement among counterfactual parties. But the point of the deliberative model is to help us (i.e., “you and me”) solve our justificatory problem—what social arrangements we can all accept as “free persons who have no authority over one another” (Rawls 1958, 33). The parties’ deliberations and the conditions under which they deliberate, then, model our actual convictions about justice and justification. As Rawls says (1999, 514), the reasoning of the counterfactual parties matters to us because “the conditions embodied in the description of this situation are ones that we do in fact accept.” Unless the counterfactual models the actual, the upshot of the agreement could not provide us with reasons. Gaus describes this process as a “testing conception” of the social contract (2011a, 425). We use the counterfactual deliberative device of the contract to “test” our social institutions. In this way, the contemporary social contract is meant to be a model of the justificatory situation that all individuals face. The counterfactual and abstracted (see §2) nature of the contract is needed to highlight the relevant features of the parties to show what reasons they have.

Samuel Freeman has recently stressed the way in which focusing on the third perspective—of citizens in a well-ordered society—also shows the importance of counterfactual agreement in Rawls’s contract theory. On Freeman’s interpretation, the social contract must meet the condition of publicity . He (2007b:15) writes:

Rawls distinguishes three levels of publicity: first, the publicity of principles of justice; second, the publicity of the general beliefs in light of which first principles of justice can be accepted (“that is, the theory of human nature and of social institutions generally)”; and, third, the publicity of the complete justification of the public conception of justice as it would be on its own terms. All three levels, Rawls contends, are exemplified in a well-ordered society. This is the “full publicity” condition.

A justified contract must meet the full publicity condition: its complete justification must be capable of being actually accepted by members of a well-ordered society. The counterfactual agreement itself provides only what Rawls (1996, 386) calls a “pro tanto” or “so far as it goes” justification of the principles of justice. “Full justification” is achieved only when actual “people endorse and will liberal justice for the particular (and often conflicting) reasons implicit in the reasonable comprehensive doctrines they hold” (Freeman 2007b, 19). Thus understood, Rawls’s concern with the stability of justice as fairness, which motivated the move to political liberalism, is itself a question of justification (Weithman, 2010). Only if the principles of justice are stable in this way are they fully justified. Rawls’s concern with stability and publicity is not, however, idiosyncratic and is shared by all contemporary contract theorists. It is significant that even theorists such as Buchanan (2000 [1975], 26–27), Gauthier (1986, 348), and Binmore (2005, 5–7)—who are so different from Rawls in other respects—share his concern with stability.

It is perhaps no surprise that the renaissance in contemporary contact theory occurred at the same time as game-theoretic tools and especially bargaining theory began to be applied to philosophical problems. Bargaining theory, as it was developed by John Nash (1950) and John Harsanyi (1977) is a rigorous approach to modeling how rational individuals would agree to divide some good or surplus. In its most general form, the bargaining model of agreement specifies some set of individuals who have individual utility functions that can be represented in relation to one other without requiring interpersonal comparisons of utility directly. Some surplus is specified and if the individuals involved can agree on how to divide the good in question, they will get that division. If, however, they cannot agree they will instead get their disagreement result. This may be what they brought to the table or it could be some other specified amount. One example is a simple demand game where two people must write down how much of given pot of money they want. If the two “bids” amount to equal or less than the pot, each will get what he or she wrote down, otherwise each will get nothing.

As Rawls recognized in his 1958 essay “Justice as Fairness” one way for parties to resolve their disagreements is to employ bargaining solutions, such as that proposed by R.B. Braithwaite (1955). Rawls himself rejected bargaining solutions to the social contract since, in his opinion, such solutions rely on “threat advantage” (i.e., disagreement result) and “to each according to his threat advantage is hardly a principle of fairness” (Rawls 1958, 58n). In addition to Rawls’s concern about threat advantage, a drawback of all such approaches is the multiplicity of bargaining solutions, which can significantly differ. Although the Nash solution is most favored today, it can have counter-intuitive implications. Furthermore, there are many who argue that bargaining solutions are inherently indeterminate and so the only way to achieve determinacy is to introduce unrealistic or controversial assumptions (Sugden, 1990, 1991; Thrasher 2014). Similar problems also exist for equilibrium selection in games (see Vanderschraaf 2005 and Harsanyi and Selten 1988).

Gauthier famously pursued the bargaining approach, building his Morals by Agreement on his bargaining solution, minimax relative concession, which is equivalent to the Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solution in the two-person case (see also Gaus 1990, Ch. IX). Binmore (2005) has recently advanced a version of social contract theory that relies on the Nash bargaining solution, as does Ryan Muldoon (2017) while Moehler (2018) relies on a “stabilized” Nash bargaining solution. In later work, Gauthier (1993) shifted from minimax relative concession to the Nash solution. Gauthier has since adopted a less formal approach to bargaining that is, nevertheless, closer to his original solution than to the Nash Solution (2013).

Many of the recent developments in bargaining theory and the social contract have adopted dynamic (Muldoon 2017, Vanderschraaf 2018) or even evolutionary approaches to modeling bargaining (Alexander and Skyrms 1999, Skyrms 2014). This highlights a general divide in bargaining models between what we can call axiomatic and process models. The traditional, axiomatic, approach to the bargaining problem going back to John Nash, codified by John Harsanyi, and popularized by R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa (1957). Out of this tradition has come several core bargaining solutions. Each uses a slightly different set of axioms to generate a unique and generally applicable way to divide a surplus. These include, most notably, the egalitarian (Raiffa 1953), the Nash (1950), the stabilized Nash (Moehler 2010), the Kalai-Smorodinsky (1975), and Gauthier’s minimax relative concession (1986). The main point of contention among these theories is whether to employ Nash’s independence axiom or to use a monotonicity axiom (as the egalitarian, Kalai-Smorodinsky, and minimax relative concession do), although, to one degree or another all of the axioms have been contested.

The other approach is what we can call a process model. Instead of using various axioms to generate a uniquely rational solution, these theorists rely on some procedure that will generate a determinate, though not always unique result. Process approaches use some mechanism to generate agreement. An example is an auction. There are many types of auctions (e.g., English, Dutch, Vickrey, etc.), each has a way of generating bids on some good and then deciding on a price. Posted price selling, like one often sees in consumer markets, are also a kind of bargain, though an extremely asymmetric one where the seller has offered a “take or leave it” ask. Double-auctions are more symmetrical and have a clearer link to the initial bargaining model. Although auctions are not typically used to solve pure division problems, there are some examples of auction mechanisms being used to solve public goods problems in interesting ways that guarantee unanimity (Smith 1977). Dworkin also uses a kind of auction mechanism in his work on equality, though he doesn’t develop his approach for more general application (Dworkin 1981, Heath 2004). Despite its promise, however, auction theory and its potential application to social contract theory have largely gone unexploited.

The main process approach to bargaining derives from the influential work of Rubinstein (1982) and his proof that it is possible to show that an alternating offer bargaining process will generate the same result as Nash’s axiomatic solution in certain cases. This result added life to Nash’s (1950) early observation that bargaining and the rules of bargaining must be the result of some non-cooperative game, with the idea being that it might be possible to unify bargaining theory and game theory. This approach, called the Nash Program, is most notably championed by Binmore (1998), whose evolutionary approach to the social contract relies on biological evolution (the game of life) to generate the background conditions of bargaining (the game of morals). Both can be modeled as non-cooperative games and the later can be modeled as a bargaining problem. By using this approach, Binmore (1998, 2005) claims to be able to show, in a robust and non-question-begging way, that something very much like Rawls’s “justice as fairness” will be the result of this evolutionary bargaining process.

A more empirically minded approach follows Schelling’s (1960) early work on bargaining and game theory by looking at the way actual people bargain and reach agreement. The pioneers of experimental economics used laboratory experiments to look at how subjects behaved in division problems (Hoffman et. al. 2000, Smith 2003). Some of the most interesting results came, perhaps surprisingly, from asymmetric bargaining games like the ultimatum game (Smith 1982). Since these early experiments, considerable experimental work has been done on bargaining problems and cooperative agreement in economics. Much of the most philosophically relevant work involves the importance of social norms and conventions in determining the result (Bicchieri 2016, Vanderschraaf 2018).

Although appealing to a bargaining solution can give determinacy to a social contract, it does so at the cost of appealing to a controversial commensuration mechanism in the case of axiomatic bargaining or of moving to process approaches that must ultimately rely on the empirically contingent outcome of social and biological evolution. Although the importance of bargaining in the social contract has been moribund for some time, recent work is changing that (see Alexander 2007, Thrasher 2014, Thoma 2015, Muldoon 2017, Moehler 2018, Vanderschraaf 2018, Bruner 2020).

We can distinguish bargaining from aggregation models of agreement. Rather than seeking an outcome that (as, roughly, the Kalai-Smorodinsky solution does) splits the difference between various claims, we might seek to aggregate the individual rankings into an overall social choice. Arrow’s theorem and related problems with social choice rules casts doubt on any claim that one specific way of aggregating is uniquely rational: all have their shortcomings (Gaus and Thrasher 2021, chap. 8). Harsanyi (1977, chaps. 1 and 2; 1982) develops a contractual theory much like Rawls’s using this approach. In Harsanyi’s approach, reasoning behind a veil of ignorance in which people do not know their post-contract identities, he supposes that rational contractors will assume it is equally probable that they will be any specific person. Moreover, he argues that contractors can agree on interpersonal utility comparisons, and so they will opt for a contract that aggregates utility at the highest average (see also Mueller 2003, chap. 26). This, of course, depends on the supposition that there is a non-controversial metric that allows us to aggregate the parties’ utility functions. Binmore (2005) follows Harsanyi and Amartya Sen (2009, Chap. 13) in arguing that interpersonal comparisons can be made for the purposes of aggregation, at least some of the time. John Broome (1995) develops something like Harsanyi’s approach that relies on making interpersonal comparisons.

One of the problems with this approach, however, is that if the interpersonal comparisons are incomplete they will not be able to produce a complete social ordering. As Sen points out, this will lead to a maximal set of alternatives where no alternative is dominated by any other within the set but also where no particular alternative is optimal (Sen, 1997). Instead of solving the aggregation problem, then, interpersonal comparisons may only be able to reduce the set of alternatives without being able to complete the ordering of alternatives.

Because of the problems with indeterminacy, many theorists have rejected the aggregation approach as being either unworkable or as being incomplete in some way. Gaus (2011), for instance, uses an evolutionary mechanism to generate determinacy in his aggregation model. Brian Kogelmann (2017) argues, however, that under reasonable assumptions about the preferences of the representative agents, aggregation alone is sufficient to generate determinacy.

There is a long tradition of thinking of the social contract as a kind of equilibrium. Within this tradition, however, the tendency is to see the social contract as some kind of equilibrium solution to a prisoner’s dilemma type situation (see Gauthier, 1986 and Buchanan, 2000 [1975]). Brian Skyrms (1996, 2004) suggests a different approach. Suppose that we have a contractual negotiation in which there are two parties, ordering four possible “social contracts”:

• both Alf and Betty hunt stag
• both hunt hare;
• Alf hunts stag, Betty hunts hare;
• Alf hunts hare, Betty hunts stag.

Let 3 be the best outcome, and let 1 be the worst in each person’s ranking (Alf’s ranking is first in each pair). We thus get Figure 1

Figure 1: A Stag Hunt

The Stag Hunt, Skyrms argues, “should be a focal point for social contract theory” (2004, 4). The issue in the Stag Hunt is not whether we fight or not, but whether we cooperate and gain, or each go our separate ways. There are two Nash equilibria in this game: both hunting stag and both hunting hare. Alf and Betty, should they find themselves at one of these equilibria, will stick to it if each consults only his or her own ranking of options. In a Nash equilibrium, no individual has a reason to defect. Of course, the contract in which they both hunt stag is a better contract: it is Pareto superior to that in which they both hunt hare. The Hare equilibrium is, however, risk superior in that it is a safer bet. Skyrms argues that the theory of iterated games can show not simply that our parties will arrive at a social contract, but how they can come to arrive at the cooperative, mutually beneficial contract. If we have a chance to play repeated games, Skyrms holds, we can learn from Hume about the “shadow of the future”: “I learn to do a service to another, without bearing him any real kindness; because I foresee, that he will return my service, in expectation of another of the same kind, and in order to maintain the same correspondence of good offices with me and with others” (Skyrms 2004, 5). Sugden, along different lines, also suggests that repeated interactions, what he calls “experience” is essential to the determination of which norms of social interaction actually hold over time (1986).

The problem with equilibrium solutions is that, as in the stag hunt game, many games have multiple equilibria. The problem then becomes how to select one unique equilibrium from a set of possible ones. The problem is compounded by the controversies over equilibrium refinement concepts (see Harsanyi and Selten 1988). Many refinements have been suggested but, as in bargaining theory, all are controversial to one degree or another. One of the interesting developments in social contract theory spurred by game theorists such as Skyrms and Binmore is the appeal to evolutionary game theory as a way to solve the commensuration and equilibrium selection problem (Vanderschraaf 2005). What cannot be solved by appeal to reason (because there simply is no determinate solution) may be solved by repeated interactions among rational parties. The work of theorists such as Skyrms and Binmore also blurs the line between justification and explanation. Their analyses shed light both on the justificatory problem—what are the characteristics of a cooperative social order that people freely follow?—while also explaining how such orders may come about.

The use of evolutionary game theory and evolutionary techniques is a burgeoning and exciting area of contract theory. One of the many questions that arise, however, is that of why, and if so under what circumstances, we should endorse the output of evolutionary procedures. Should one equilibrium be preferred to another merely because it was the output of an evolutionary procedure? Surely we would want reasons independent of history for reflectively endorsing some equilibrium. This problem highlights the concern that social contracts that are the product of evolutionary procedures will not meet the publicity condition in the right kind of way. If the publicity condition seems harder to meet, the evolutionary approach provides a powerful and dynamic way to understand stability. Following Maynard Smith (1982), we can see stability as being an evolutionarily stable strategy equilibrium or an ESS. Basically, this is the idea that an equilibrium in an evolutionary game where successful strategies replicate at higher rates is stable if the equilibrium composition of the population in terms of strategies is not susceptible to invasion by a mutant strategy. An ESS is an application of the Nash equilibrium concept to populations. A population is evolutionarily stable when a mutant strategy is not a better response to the population than the current mix of strategies in the population. This gives a formal interpretation of Rawls’s conception of “inherent stability” and to Buchanan’s notion that social contracts should be able to withstand subversion by a sub-population of knaves. This new conception of stability combined with the dynamic nature of evolutionary games provides interesting new ways for the social contract theorist to model the output of the contract.

Social contract theories differ about the object of the contract. In the traditional contract theories of Hobbes and Locke, the contract was about the terms of political association. In particular, the problem was the grounds and limits of citizen’s obligation to obey the state. In his early formulation, Rawls’s parties deliberated about “common practices” (1958). In his later statement of his view, Rawls took the object of agreement to be principles of justice to regulate “the basic structure:”

The basic structure is understood as the way in which the major social institutions fit together into one system, and how they assign fundamental rights and duties and shape the division of advantages that arises through social cooperation. Thus the political constitution, the legally enforced forms of property, and the organization of the economy, and the nature of the family, all belong to the basic structure. (Rawls 1996, 258)

For Rawls, as for most contemporary contract theorists, the object of agreement is not, at least directly, the grounds of political obligation, but the principles of justice that regulate the basic institutions of society. Freeman (2007a: 23), focuses on “the social role of norms in public life.” Buchanan is concerned with justifying constitutional orders of social and political institutions (2000 [1975]). Gauthier (1986), Scanlon (1998), Darwall (2006), Southwood (2010), and Gaus (2011a) employ the contract device to justify social moral norms or rules.

The level at which the object of the contract is described is apt to affect the outcome of the agreement. “A striking feature of Hobbes’ view,” Russell Hardin points out, “is that it is a relative assessment of whole states of affairs. Life under one form of government versus life under anarchy” (2003, 43). Hobbes could plausibly argue that everyone would agree to the social contract because “life under government” is, from the perspective of everyone, better than “life under anarchy” (the baseline condition). However, if a Hobbesian sought to divide the contract up into, say, more fine-grained agreements about the various functions of government, she is apt to find that agreement would not be forthcoming on many functions. As we “zoom in” (Lister, 2010) on more fine-grained functions of government, the contract is apt to become more limited. If the parties are simply considering whether government is better than anarchy, they will opt for just about any government (including, say, one that funds the arts); if they are considering whether to have a government that funds the arts or one that doesn’t, it is easy to see how they may not agree on the former. In a similar way, if the parties are deliberating about entire moral codes, there may be wide agreement that all the moral codes, overall, are in everyone’s interests; if we “zoom in” in specific rights and duties, we are apt to get a very different answer.

In multi-level contract theories such as we find in the work of Buchanan’s (2000 [1975], Moehler’s (2018), or Thrasher (2020), each stage or level has its own unique object. In Buchanan’s theory, the object of the constitutional stage is a system of constraints that will allow individuals to peacefully co-exist, what Buchanan calls the “protective state” (2000 [1975]). On his view, the state of nature is characterized by both predation and defense. One’s ability to engage in productive enterprises is decreased because of the need to defend the fruits of those enterprises against those who would rely on predation rather than production. We all have reason to contract, according to Buchanan, in order to increase the overall ability of everyone to produce by limiting the need for defense by constraining the ability to engage in predation. Once the solution to the predation-production conflict has been solved by the constitutional contract, members of society also realize that if all contributed to the production of various public goods, the productive possibility of society would be similarly increased. This second, post-constitutional stage, involves what Buchanan calls the “productive state.” Each stage is logically distinct though there are causal relationships between changes made at one stage and the efficacy and stability of the solution at the later stage. The distinction between the two stages is analogous to the traditional distinction between commutative and distributive justice. Although these two are often bound up together in contemporary contract theory, one of Buchanan’s novel contributions is to suggest that there are theoretical gains to separating these distinct objects of agreement.

Moehler’s (2017) “multi-level” contract has several aspects. First, drawing on their pluralistic moral commitments individuals seek to agree on social-moral rules that all can endorse as a common morality. This object of this agreement is similar to that of Darwall’s, Gaus’s and Southwood’s models. The second-level agreement is appropriate to circumstances in which pluralism is so deep and wide no common morality can be forged. Rather than moral agents, the parties are reconceived as instrumentally rational prudential agents: the object of this second level is rules of cooperation that advance the interests of all when a deeper moral basis cannot be uncovered.

Suppose, then, that we have arrived at some social contract. Depending on the initial justificatory problem, it will yield an outcome R (principles, rules, etc. that have some normative property L —such as justice, morality, authority, obligation, legitimacy, mutual benefit, and so on. But, supposing that the contract has generated a principle, rule, etc. with the relevant normative property, precisely what is shown by the fact that this principle or rule was generated through the contractual device?

Throughout we have been distinguishing the justificatory problem from the deliberative model. Now the strongest that could be claimed for a contractual argument is that the outcome of the deliberative model is constitutive of both the correct solution of the justificatory problem and the conclusion that “ R has L .” On this “constructivist” reading of the outcome of the deliberative model, there is no independent and determinate external justification that R has L , which the contractual device is intended to approximate, but, rather, that R is the outcome of the deliberative model is the truth-maker for “ R has L ”.

Rawls, along with Gauthier and Buchanan, was sometimes attracted to such a reading. Rawls (1999, 104) describes the argument from the original position as invoking “pure procedural justice”—the deliberative situation is so set up that whatever principles it generates are, by the fact of their generation, just. But, his considered position is that the outcome of the deliberative model is indicative (not constitutive) of the correct solution to “the question of justification” (1999, 16).

We might say that the deliberative model is evidence of the proper answer to the question of justification. However, this is still consistent with Rawls’s “constructivism” because the answer to the justificatory problem is constitutive of R ’s having L . So we might say that Rawls’s two principles are just—simply because they are in reflective equilibrium with the considered judgments of you and me and that they would be chosen in the original position is indicative of this.

The weakest interpretation of the contract is that the contractual result is simply indicative of the correct answer to the justificatory problem, which itself is simply indicative of the fact that R has L . One could be a “realist,” maintaining that whether R has L is a fact that holds whether or not the contract device generates R has L , and independently of whether the correct answer to our justificatory problem (i.e., what we can justify to each other) is that R has L . There is still logical space for a type of contractualism here, but an indicative contractualism of this sort would not be a form of “constructivism.” Some, for example, have argued that Scanlon’s theory is actually based on a sort of natural rights theory, where these rights are prior to the contract (Mack 2007). Even if this is correct, Scanlon can be a sort of social contract theorist. The diversity of possible approaches within social contract theory indicates the variety of different uses to which social contract theory can be applied.

6. Conclusion: The Social Contract and Justification

The social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau all stressed that the justification of the state depends on showing that everyone would, in some way, consent to it. By relying on consent, social contract theory seemed to suppose a voluntarist conception of political justice and obligation: what counts as “justice” of “obligation” depends on what people agree to—whatever that might be. Only in Kant (1797) does it become clear that consent is not fundamental to a social contract view: we have a duty to agree to act according to the idea of the “original contract.” Rawls’s revival of social contract theory in A Theory of Justice did not base obligations on consent, though the apparatus of an “original agreement” persisted as a way to help solve the problem of justification. As the question of public justification takes center stage, it becomes clear that posing the problem of justification in terms of a deliberative or a bargaining problem is a heuristic: the real issue is “the problem of justification”—what principles can be justified to all reasonable citizens or persons.

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Acknowledgments

In September 2008, Gerald Gaus became a co-author of this entry for the purpose of maintaining it and keeping it current. In December 2011, Gaus was joined by co-author John Thrasher. Changes introduced in these versions reflect joint modifications to the entry which had been solely authored and maintained by Fred D’Agostino. In 2020, Thrasher became solely responsible for updates.

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Social Contract Theory

November 20, 2023

Explore the essentials of social contract theory, its key thinkers, and its impact on modern governance and ethical norms in society.

Main, P. (2023, November 20). Social Contract Theory. Structural Learning. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/social-contract-theory

What is the Social Contract Theory?

Social Contract Theory, a cornerstone in the edifice of political philosophy , offers a window into the intricate relationship between individual people and societal structures . At its core, this theory posits that members of a society implicitly agree to surrender some freedoms to authority figures in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. This conceptual framework, championed by social contract theorists, delves into the origins of moral and political order, examining how collective agreements shape human life.

The theory's roots can be traced back to the Enlightenment era, where thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau pondered over the human condition in a 'state of nature' – a hypothetical life without political institutions. They argued that rational individuals would agree to form a society governed by mutual obligations, moving away from the brutish, solitary life that characterizes the state of nature. This transition, according to them, is guided by an inherent understanding of moral codes and the laws of nature.

In the 20th century, John Rawls revitalized the theory with his 'theory of justice', which reimagined the social contract as a fair agreement among equals. Rawls' perspective underscores the role of moral persons in shaping a just society, where political power is exercised in ways that are beneficial to all, especially the least advantaged. His ideas resonate profoundly in modern society , where equity and fairness in educational and political institutions are increasingly scrutinized.

Social Contract Theory offers a lens to view the evolution of societal norms and the balance between individual liberty and collective good. It remains a dominant theory in understanding the philosophical underpinnings of modern governance and social structures .

Key ideas to explore:

• The Foundation of Societal Agreements : How implicit contracts form the basis of societal structures and individual relationships with authority.
• Role of Rational Individuals : The impact of rational thinking in shaping political and moral frameworks within societies.
• Evolution from Theory to Practice : The transition of Social Contract Theory from philosophical discourse to practical applications in modern political and educational systems.

Overview of the History of Social Contract Theory

The history of social contract theory dates back to ancient Greece, with the contributions of Socrates. Socrates believed that individuals enter into a social contract voluntarily in order to establish a just and moral society. However, it was Thomas Hobbes who popularized the concept of social contract theory in the 17th century.

Hobbes argued that in a state of nature, without any governing authority , individuals would suffer a constant fear of violent death. To avoid this, they willingly enter into a social contract where they surrender certain freedoms to a sovereign ruler in exchange for protection and security.

This idea was further developed by John Locke in the 17th century. Locke emphasized the importance of individual rights and believed that the purpose of the social contract was to protect these rights. He argued that if a government failed to do so, individuals had the right to rebel and establish a new social contract.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau contributed to the theory in the 18th century with his idea of the "general will." He believed that in order for a society to be just, decisions should be made collectively, considering the common good rather than individual interests.

Overall, social contract theory proposes that moral and political obligations are dependent on a contract or agreement among individuals to form a society. This theory has shaped modern political thought and continues to be relevant in discussions on governance and individual rights .

Overview of Key Contributors to Social Contract Theory

Social contract theory is a philosophical concept that explores the origin and nature of society and the obligations individuals have towards one another. Several key contributors have shaped this theory over time, each presenting their unique perspectives.

One of the earliest thinkers to delve into social contract theory is Thomas Hobbes. In his work Leviathan, Hobbes argued that humans naturally exist in a state of chaos and self-interest , known as the state of nature. According to Hobbes, individuals enter into a social contract to establish a sovereign ruler, giving up certain liberties in exchange for protection and order.

John Locke, another influential figure, offered a contrasting viewpoint. Locke posited that humans have inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and property. He argued that the purpose of government is to protect these rights, and if the government fails to do so, individuals have the right to rebel.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposed a different interpretation, emphasizing the concept of the collective will. Rousseau believed that society corrupts individuals, and true freedom can only be achieved through direct democracy where citizens make decisions collectively.

Immanuel Kant built upon these theories, emphasizing the moral aspect of social contract theory. He argued that individuals should act according to universal moral principles that can be justified through reason.

These key contributors to social contract theory presented distinct theories and ideas , shaping our understanding of society and the relationships between individuals and the state.

John Locke, an influential Enlightenment thinker, was born on August 29, 1632, in Wrington, Somerset, England. Throughout his life, Locke made significant contributions to various fields such as political philosophy, epistemology, and education. His ideas continue to shape modern democratic societies and serve as a foundation for many governmental systems around the world.

Locke's works, particularly his most famous work, "Two Treatises of Government," had a profound impact on the development of human rights, individual freedom, and the concept of a social contract. His theories on natural rights, limited government, and the consent of the governed laid the groundwork for the American Constitution and the principles upon which many liberal democracies are based.

Furthermore, Locke's epistemological theories provided a basis for empiricism, the idea that knowledge is derived from sensory experience rather than innate ideas. In the realm of education, Locke emphasized the importance of fostering critical thinking , self-reflection, and individual cultivation of knowledge .

Locke's revolutionary ideas continue to be studied and discussed by scholars today, solidifying his legacy as a prominent figure in the history of philosophy and political thought.

Biography of John Locke

John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and political theorist, widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Wrington, Somerset, England, Locke pursued an education at Oxford and eventually became a prominent figure in the intellectual circles of his time.

Locke's most influential work is undoubtedly his Two Treatises on Government, published in 1689. In this work, he argues for the natural rights and liberties of individuals and the limitations of government power. Locke's ideas on government, particularly his assertion that political authority should be based on the consent of the governed, heavily influenced the development of democratic thought and revolutions in the United States.

Locke's belief in the right to life, liberty, and property also played a significant role in shaping the American Revolution and the drafting of the United States Constitution. His ideas on individual rights and limited government were incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

John Locke's impact on democratic revolutions, his influential political writings, particularly the Two Treatises on Government, continue to be highly respected and studied to this day. His emphasis on individual rights and limited government has left a lasting legacy on democratic societies worldwide.

Contributions to Social Contract Theory by Locke

John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers, made significant contributions to the social contract theory. Central to his perspective was his understanding of the state of nature and why individuals agree to establish a commonwealth.

Locke argued that in the state of nature, where there is no organized government, individuals are inherently equal and possess natural rights. These rights include the right to life, liberty, and property. However, the state of nature is also marked by insecurity and potential conflict , as there is no central authority to enforce and protect these natural rights.

To escape the chaos of the state of nature, individuals voluntarily agree to form a commonwealth or civil society. By entering into this social contract, individuals give up some of their freedoms but gain the benefits of a government that upholds and protects their natural rights. According to Locke, the purpose of government is to preserve and protect these fundamental rights.

Importantly, Locke believed that the obligation to obey civil government was contingent upon the government's ability to fulfill its role in safeguarding natural rights. If a government fails to protect these rights or becomes tyrannical, individuals retain the right to dissolve the social contract and establish a new government that better serves its purpose.

John Locke's contributions to the social contract theory include his perspective on the state of nature and the reasons individuals enter into a commonwealth. Furthermore, his belief that the obligation to obey the government is conditional upon the protection of natural rights reflects his commitment to the autonomy and well-being of individuals in a just society .

Criticisms of John Locke’s Ideas on Social Contract Theory

John Locke, a prominent philosopher, is often credited with developing the concept of social contract theory. While his ideas have had a significant impact in shaping modern democratic societies, it is crucial to consider the criticisms that have been raised against his theory, particularly in relation to law enforcement.

One criticism of Locke's social contract theory is the limited scope it offers for government authority and law enforcement. Some argue that Locke's emphasis on the preservation of individual rights and limited government power underestimates the important role law enforcement plays in maintaining societal order.

Additionally, critics highlight moral dilemmas that arise from Locke's theory. The concept of consent, which forms the basis of the social contract, can present challenges when applied to law enforcement, as individuals may not always consent to be subject to the authority of the state. This raises questions about how to handle individuals who refuse to recognize or abide by laws, posing a potential threat to society.

Critics also argue that Locke's theory fails to adequately address power imbalances within society and the potential for abuses by law enforcement authorities. Without sufficient checks and balances, law enforcement agencies may exploit their authority, infringing upon the rights of citizens and undermining the principles of justice and equality.

While John Locke's ideas on social contract theory have undoubtedly influenced the principles of modern governance, criticisms regarding their application to law enforcement should not be overlooked. The limitations on government authority and potential moral dilemmas surrounding consent and power imbalances deserve thoughtful consideration when examining the role of law enforcement within a democratic society.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an influential philosopher, writer, and composer who lived in the 18th century. Known for his innovative ideas and controversial perspectives on politics, education, and society, Rousseau's work also played a crucial role in shaping the Enlightenment period.

His profound writings, such as "The Social Contract" and "Emile," challenged the existing social order and advocated for individual freedom and the importance of nature in human development. Rousseau's philosophy emphasized the innate goodness of human beings while critiquing the corrupting influence of civilization and social institutions.

This introduction will explore Rousseau's ideas on the state of nature, the social contract, and his key contributions to educational theory .

Biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a key figure in the Enlightenment, was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1712. He had a tumultuous life, marked by financial struggles, multiple affairs, and a series of estrangements from his children.

Rousseau's intellectual contributions were wide-ranging and influential. He published various works on political philosophy, education, and music. His ideas challenged traditional notions of government and society, emphasizing the importance of individual freedoms and the need for a more egalitarian social order. His belief in the natural goodness of humans contrasted sharply with prevailing theories of original sin.

Rousseau actively participated in the Enlightenment through his involvement in the Encyclopédie project. This monumental publication sought to compile and disseminate knowledge on a wide range of subjects, and Rousseau contributed articles on music and political economy.

He also frequented the salons in Paris, which were intellectual gatherings where thinkers and artists exchanged ideas. These salons provided Rousseau with a platform to discuss his political theories and engage in lively debates with other Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire and Diderot.

Rousseau's most notable works include his two social contract theories. In "The Social Contract," he argued that a legitimate state must be based on the consent of its citizens and that power should be vested in the general will. In "Discourse on Inequality," he explored the origins of inequality and its impact on human society.

Overall, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's biography illustrates his significant contributions to the Enlightenment and his lasting impact on political philosophy and social theory .

Contributions to Social Contract Theory by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau ideas differed greatly from those of his predecessors, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.

Rousseau's collectivist conception of social contract theory emphasized the collective wellbeing of society over individual interests. He believed that individuals voluntarily give up their rights and freedoms to create a society that works for the common good. Rousseau argued that the social contract is formed to promote equality and social justice.

One of Rousseau's key contributions was his concept of the "general will." According to him, the general will is not merely the sum of individual wills but represents the collective interest of all society. Unlike Locke, who focused on protecting individual rights, Rousseau argued that the general will should guide the decision-making process in a society.

Furthermore, Rousseau's luminous conception of sovereignty challenged the idea held by Hobbes that sovereignty should come from a single ruler or government. Instead, Rousseau suggested that sovereignty lies with the people as a whole. In this view, the people have the ultimate authority and can collectively decide what is best for themselves.

Rousseau's political theory differs greatly from Locke and Hobbes in his emphasis on the common interest and the collective wellbeing of society. Instead of prioritizing individual rights, Rousseau's contributions to social contract theory lay in his collective vision and his belief in the power of the general will.

Criticisms of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Ideas on Social Contract Theory

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract theory ideas have long been praised and criticized. While his theory emphasizes the idea of a collective agreement between individuals to form a society, there are several criticisms and objections against his theory.

One of the main objections raised against Rousseau's social contract theory is the unrealistic assumption of the state of nature. Rousseau argues that in the absence of society, individuals live in a peaceful and harmonious natural state, where their needs are met without conflict. However, critics argue that this assumption does not reflect the reality of human nature, as individuals are inherently self-interested and driven by selfish motives.

Another criticism is the lack of individual rights and freedoms in Rousseau's theory. His focus on the general will and the collective good often neglects the rights of individuals. Critics argue that this emphasis on the general will can lead to the suppression of individual liberties and the majority imposing their will on the minority.

Furthermore, Rousseau's theory is criticized for its lack of practicality. While his ideas on the social contract may offer an idealistic view of society, critics argue that they fail to provide practical solutions for the complexities and challenges that arise in real-world societies.

Rousseau's social contract theory has faced significant criticisms and objections. From the unrealistic assumption of the state of nature to the neglect of individual rights and practicality concerns, these criticisms highlight the limitations and flaws in his ideas.

Comparing the Key Theorists

Here is a comparative table outlining different perspectives on social contract theory by three prominent political philosophers. This table helps us understand the differences and similarities between these theories, especially in terms of human nature, political society, sovereign power, and their impact on daily lives and history.

It encapsulates the core ideas of each philosopher, highlighting their unique perspectives on the nature of human behavior, the role of political society, and the implications of their theories in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Ethical Implications of Social Contracts

There are numerous ethical implications of social contracts:

• Ethical implications of social contracts in relation to democratic institutions arise from the necessity of ensuring fairness, justice, and accountability within the framework of governance.
• Social contracts are agreements between the people and the government, binding both parties to certain rights and responsibilities.
• In a democratic society, the ethical implications of social contracts lie in the need to protect individual freedoms, promote equality, and maintain the social welfare of the people.
• Democratic institutions should uphold ethical values such as transparency, accountability, and the rule of law in order to honor the social contract.
• Ethical implications also extend to the government's responsibility to protect the rights of all individuals, including minority groups, and to create and enforce laws that promote the common good.
• The social contract also places responsibilities on the people, such as obeying the laws and supporting the democratic process through informed participation.
• Ethical issues may arise when the government fails to fulfill its obligations outlined in the social contract, such as suppressing dissent, violating human rights, or engaging in corruption.
• Additionally, the social contract may be challenged when the government restricts or infringes upon individual rights in the name of national security or public interest.
• Upholding the ethical implications of social contracts in democratic institutions requires constant evaluation, dialogue, and accountability to ensure that the rights and responsibilities of both the people and the government are balanced and respected.

Applications of the Social Contract Theory

In this section, we delve into the diverse applications of Social Contract Theory, exploring how its principles influence various aspects of society, from governance and law to ethical norms and educational practices.

1. Government Legitimacy: The Social Contract Theory provides a framework for understanding the legitimacy of governing authorities. It argues that the government's power is derived from the consent of the governed, and that citizens willingly surrender some of their individual freedoms in exchange for protection and the common good.

2. Legal Rights and Responsibilities: The theory helps establish the rights and responsibilities of individuals within a society. It defines the boundaries of freedom and helps create laws and regulations that promote fairness, justice, and individual rights.

3. Social Stability: The Social Contract Theory emphasizes the importance of maintaining social stability in a society. By agreeing to abide by a set of rules and laws, individuals contribute to the creation of a cohesive and harmonious society where conflicts are resolved through peaceful means.

4. Social Welfare: This theory also touches upon the concept of social welfare, highlighting the responsibility of the government towards its citizens. It argues that the government has a duty to provide for the basic needs of its citizens and ensure a minimal level of well-being for all.

5. Democracy: The principles of the Social Contract Theory are fundamental to the concept of democracy. It asserts that power is vested in the people and that they have the right to participate in the decision-making process. This theory serves as a basis for democratic institutions and practices.

The Social Contract Theory helps us understand the relationship between rules and laws in a society. It suggests that rules and laws are established through a mutual agreement between the government and the citizens. The citizens willingly give up certain freedoms and abide by the laws in exchange for protection and the common good.

This understanding helps establish the authority and legitimacy of rules and laws in a society, as they are seen as a product of a social contract rather than arbitrary impositions.

The Social Contract Theory also explains how it can deliver society from a state of nature to a flourishing society. In a state of nature, individuals are driven by self-interest, leading to a chaotic and unstable society.

The social contract brings individuals together through a mutual agreement, establishing a system of rules, laws, and institutions. These structures promote social cooperation , resolve conflicts peacefully, and create a harmonious and flourishing society where the needs of all individuals are met.

The Social Contract Theory has several applications, including establishing government legitimacy, defining rights and responsibilities, ensuring social stability, promoting social welfare, and supporting democratic practices. It helps us understand the relationship between rules and laws and how the social contract can transform a state of nature into a flourishing society.

Social Contract Theory in the Digital Age

In the digital age, where societies heavily rely on digital technologies, the relevance and implications of social contract theory have become increasingly evident. 

With the advent of digital advancements , the concept of consent and the individual-government relationship undergo significant transformations. In the digital realm, consent is at the center of individuals' interactions with technology and governments. The collection and use of personal data by governments and private companies raise questions about informed consent and the protection of individual privacy.

Digital advancements also influence the individual-government relationship, as governments utilize technologies to monitor citizens and enforce rules. This raises concerns about the balance between security and freedom, with increased surveillance through digital means potentially infringing upon individuals' rights.

In conclusion, the digital age has brought about new dimensions to the social contract theory. Consent and the relationship between individuals and governments are profoundly impacted by digital advancements.

As society continues to grapple with the implications of these technological developments , it is crucial to critically analyze and adapt the social contract to ensure that individual autonomy and privacy are protected in this digital era.

Further Reading on Social Contract Theory

The efficacy and implications of this theory have been explored in various research studies. Here are five key studies that delve into different aspects of social contract theory:

• Justice through Trust: Disability and the “Outlier Problem” in Social Contract Theory by A. Silvers & L. Francis (2005). This study reconceptualizes social contract theory as trust relationships, fostering inclusiveness and respect for individuals with disabilities. It addresses criticisms of the theory for ignoring outliers, suggesting an expansion of the theory’s traditional scope.
• Social Contracts and Marketing Ethics by Thomas W. Dunfee, N. Smith, & William T. Ross (1999). This paper posits that Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) offers a coherent framework for resolving ethical issues in marketing, particularly in boundary-spanning relationships and cross-cultural activities.
• Psychological Contracts: A Nano-Level Perspective on Social Contract Theory by Jeffery A. Thompson & David W. Hart (2005). Incorporating the nano-level perspective of psychological contracts into social contract theory can enhance its description and practical insights into day-to-day human interactions.
• Domain-specific reasoning: Social contracts, cheating, and perspective change by G. Gigerenzer & Klaus Hug (1992). This study supports the concept of a social contract but emphasizes the pragmatic issue: whether a person is cued into the perspective of a party who can be cheated, thus questioning the practical application of the theory.
• Ties that Unwind: Dynamism in Integrative Social Contracts Theory by R. Phillips & Michael E. Johnson-Cramer (2006). This paper argues that Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) undervalues the dynamic nature of moral norms in organizations and extends the theory by considering the changing terms and parties of social contracts.

These studies collectively offer a nuanced understanding of social contract theory, highlighting its applications, challenges, and potential for expansion in various contexts .

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Opinion Front

An Easy Explanation of John Locke’s Social Contract Theory

The importance of a government that is appointed for the protection of our natural rights bound by the law of nature is what John Locke speaks about in his social contract theory.

A theory in political philosophy.

A Social Contract is not an official contract, but a fiction; that of mutual understanding.

No man in this world is free. We are all governed by the societies we live in. The natural rights we were born with are protected by a government we choose to govern us. A big question that intrigued the theorists of the social contract theory was, that how can people give away their freedom to a sovereignty in trade for some benefits? John Locke’s social contract theory is what we are living today. The American Constitution and all Western political systems today are based on this theory.

A short summary of ‘social contract theory’

You know what it is to sign a contract. It means you abide with all the rules and regulations of that contract and agree to follow them, discontinuity of which would cause serious punishable consequences. A social contract is what we all sign as a part of the society we live in, in order to enjoy its social benefits. It is not an official contract, but a fiction; that of mutual understanding.

To understand John Locke’s Social Contract Theory , we need to first understand these two concepts:

◆ State of nature ◆ Law of nature

State of nature

State of nature is equivalent to anarchy. It is based on a hypothetical situation that when years ago there were no societies, what it would have been like. What was it to be completely free, without anyone to judge or punish, and how societies came into existence. Philosophers have different views and theories on this concept. State of nature suggests that people have complete freedom to anything and everything, which was indeed the natural condition of the human race.

According to Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher of the 17th century, the rights people have in a state of nature, to their possessions, including property, and their will to do anything they wanted to, created a menace without a political hand to control the injustice one could do to the other in power of his rights. This created a state of war between every individual, if a person posed a threat to another in order to gain access to his belongings. This would cause invasion and insult of others rights, instigating them to take necessary actions to protect themselves against the harm a person having ill intentions can cause to them. To seek just protection and insure stability in their lives, people surrendered their freedom to a sovereignty.

Law of nature

Law of nature according to John Locke states that every individual is bound by a social responsibility towards the other. As it is said, ‘The rights of swinging my fist ends where your nose starts’, Locke claims that every person should realize his responsibility and understand the limitations of his rights and respect that of others. As he stated, law of nature is the groundwork of morality, and is given to us by God, which summons that we should not harm anything related to anyone be it life, possessions, liberty or health. We are all created equally by God, and so the thought of harming each other shouldn’t even cross our minds, since it is not our right to harm someone who rightfully belongs to God. This is a mutual understanding between every human being that to be a part of such immoral things is a disgrace to their existence, and it should be in the best of their interest to be away from such things.

John Locke’s Social Contract Theory

John Locke in his theory, applied the methodological device of Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature, but in a very different way. According to Locke, a state of nature is a condition, where humans are free to do anything that pleases them, with complete liberty, but also morality. Freedom doesn’t mean being inhumane towards others. Freedom is to be free within oneself, and to do anything regarding to self. Others should not be a part of your freedom, meaning, their life, property, or liberty is not a part of your freedom. This is what the law of nature states.

State of nature is that in which humans are free but bound by the rules of morality. This creates a peaceful atmosphere, as opposed to what Hobbes enunciates in his theory that a state of war emerges in state of nature. The difference here is due to the application of law of nature. However, Locke also says in his theory, that if there is threat to life by another person, breaking the law of nature, then in self-defense complete right to save one’s life by killing the other is considered right, and a state of war will emerge only when a person decides to revolt and involve in criminal activities. But since there is no rule other than that of morality, which has already been breached, the war will continue to go on, and bitter occurrences will arise giving birth to even worse ones. This is where the need for a political community comes in scene.

A government made by the people, with rules and regulations formed with the consent of people, to be acted upon those who violate the law of nature, comes in force in such situations. This benefits the people in the state of nature in many ways, providing them security against those that can be potential threats and the protection of their rights. Since the government is now a mutual head of the society, people contribute funds for their own conveniences like roads, institutes, industries and other social amenities, to be used by all those living in that area.

Governments are formed to be beneficial to its people. They are given the authority to judge right from wrong, and impose restrictions and punishments for offenses that are made to the people of the state of nature. If however, people feel that the government is being unjust, or partial, or imposing its own rules, the right to bring down the current government and elect for a new one, remains intact with the people in the state of nature.

The fact that Locke considered the state of nature to be a positive condition of living if bounded by the law of nature, made him extend his thoughts towards bringing down a built governance, going back to the being in the state of nature, to form a new and better one. This political theory of social contract is being followed almost in all the countries today, and its significance can be seen in a just and humane culture we live in.

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GROUP 2 ASSIGNMENT CITIZEN AND THE STATE JOHN LOCKE'S SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

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