Social Contract Theory
Social contract theory explains and justifies political authority and moral norms as the product of an agreement — actual or hypothetical — among the people they bind.
Definition
Social contract theory holds that the legitimacy of political authority, or the content of moral and political principles, derives from an agreement that rational persons would make to leave a pre-political condition (the state of nature) and submit to common rules.
Scope
Covers the classical contract tradition (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau), the device of the state of nature, the distinction between contractarian (mutual-advantage) and contractualist (reasonable-agreement) versions, and modern revivals. Rawls's hypothetical-contract theory is treated under justice as fairness.
Core questions
- What would life be like in a 'state of nature' without political authority?
- What would rational persons agree to in order to leave that condition?
- Is the contract actual, tacit, or merely hypothetical?
- Does the contract justify authority, generate moral norms, or both?
Key concepts
- the state of nature
- the covenant
- the general will
- contractarianism vs. contractualism
- mutual advantage
- tacit consent
Key theories
- Hobbesian contractarianism
- Hobbes argues that in the state of nature life would be a war of all against all, so rational individuals covenant to authorize a sovereign with absolute power to secure peace and self-preservation.
- The general will
- Rousseau argues that legitimate authority arises only when citizens jointly subject themselves to the 'general will', so that in obeying laws they have a share in making they remain as free as before.
- Morals by agreement
- Gauthier revives contractarianism by deriving moral constraints from rational self-interest, arguing that fully rational agents would agree to dispositions of constrained maximization that make mutually beneficial cooperation possible.
History
The classical social-contract era runs from Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) through Locke's Two Treatises (1689) to Rousseau's Social Contract (1762) and Kant. After a 19th-century eclipse under utilitarian and Hegelian criticism, the tradition was revived in the 20th century by Rawls's contractualism and Gauthier's contractarianism (1986).
Debates
- Contractarian vs. contractualist
- Whether the contract proceeds from mutual advantage among self-interested parties (Hobbes, Gauthier) or from what persons could reasonably agree to as free and equal (Rousseau, the Kantian tradition).
- Is a hypothetical contract binding?
- Whether an agreement that no one actually made can ground real political obligation, or whether only actual consent can bind, a standing objection to hypothetical-contract theories.
Key figures
- Thomas Hobbes
- John Locke
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- David Gauthier
Related topics
Seminal works
- hobbes1651
- rousseau1762
- gauthier1986
Frequently asked questions
- What is the state of nature?
- It is a hypothetical condition without political authority, used by contract theorists as a baseline; Hobbes paints it as a violent war of all against all, while Locke and Rousseau describe more peaceful but unstable conditions.