• What is the social contract?
• Contributions to the social contract of Thomas Hobbes
• Contributions to the social contract of John Locke
• Contributions to the social contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We explain what the social contract is and what were the contributions of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to this theory.

The theory of the social contract maintains that the State is the guarantor of citizens' rights.

What is the social contract?

In political philosophy, theory of Right and others disciplines related, is called a social contract to a political theory that explains the origin and purpose of the Condition, as well as the Human rights.

It is based on the idea that there is great agreement in the society in relation to their rights, duties and the existence of a State endowed with the authority to govern within the framework of a set of laws and of moral standards established. Put more simply, the social contract is the agreement between the citizens of the society that gave birth to the State.

The main formulation of this theory is attributed to the Swiss philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). This author was one of the main voices of the Illustration European Union, whose ideas paved the way for French Revolution from 1789.

However, similar ideas can be traced back to works as old as The Republic of the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC) or the Maximum capitals of Epicurus (341-279 BC), around the violent and selfish nature from which the human being and how it was essential to establish a pact of coexistence to be able to found civilization.

Other later contributors were the English Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704), as we will see later.

The pact described in the social contract is not necessarily an explicit pact, that is, we cannot trace the history of the humanity the signing of said agreement. On the contrary, it is a tacit, imaginary and social agreement.

The State was born in these circumstances, thought as the guarantor of citizen rights and the authority that claims duties, although the way of understanding said State has been very different and has changed a lot throughout the history of humanity.

Contributions to the social contract of Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes represented the State with the Leviathan, an invincible monster.

The first philosopher who formally attempted a contractualist work (that is, in defense of the social contract) was Hobbes, in his famous Leviathan , written during a period of civil war in England.

Hobbes questions who should exercise sovereignty of the State, the King or Parliament. Finally, it reaches the conclusion that some social contract is always necessary to guarantee the peace between the citizens, that is, an "artificial" order.

Hobbes reflects that Humans They are all the same before nature, as they are endowed ultimately with a self-preservation instinct that does not distinguish between social classes or political reasons. That instinct condemns the human to a perpetual state of war or from competition.

Hence, the State as can central is required. For its creation, citizens must renounce their natural law to violence, in order to maintain peace.

In Hobbes's imagination, the State is represented by Leviathan, a biblical monster, since it would be a supreme, invincible force, only just and necessary.

Contributions to the social contract of John Locke

For Locke, the citizen sacrifices his right to defend himself so that the State does it for him.

In Locke's case, the work that collects his thought around the social contract is Two Essays on Civil Government . There he starts from a deeply Christian conception of the human being: the human being is a creature of God, whose life does not belong to himself but to the creator.

Thus considered, the human is not morally capable of disposing of his existence nor that of other creatures. He only has the right and the duty to preserve his own life. Therefore, under the gaze of God, all men are equal in rights and sovereignty.

However, there is a need, as human beings live with their peers, to judge what to do in the event that someone violates the right of another to exist, and what are the steps that must be taken to exercise the right to exist. Justice.

As there is nothing similar in human nature, the social contract is born to create justice as an institution: a judge who decides the controversies inherent to the natural law of the human being, and who guarantees the basic rights for the human being, which according to Locke they were the life, the equality, the Liberty and the property.

In a similar way to Hobbes, Locke raises the inevitable need to sacrifice human natural right, that primitive violence that allows us to defend our own existence, so that it is the civil society, that common judge, whoever does it for him.

This power cannot be held by a single authority, as in the case of absolute monarchies, but must be constituted by a parliament, that is, a set of community representatives, elected by and from among it.

Finally, for Locke there are two stages of formation of the social contract: a first in which the community and exceeds natural law (Company formation contract) and a second in which relationships between rulers and ruled are created (Government training contract).

Contributions to the social contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau questioned the social order that the monarchy proposed.

It was Rousseau who took this thought to its peak, with The social contract , taking some of Locke's individualistic points, but also assuming his own distance. Rousseau devoted himself to observing the society around him, in which the absolute monarchy prevailed.

He soon reached fundamental conclusions about the bond between the sovereign and the subjects, noting that this is not produced by submission or submission, but that the people voluntarily admit the sovereignty of the King, renouncing a state of "natural innocence" to abide by the rules. of society, receiving in exchange a series of benefits, typical of social exchange.

Such consent is given under the terms of what he called a social contract. For Rousseau, the human being in his natural state was innocent, he did not know evil and he only knew two basic feelings: self-love, that is, self-protection, and disgust for the suffering of others, that is, piety.

But as you become part of a massive society, new (and false) needs emerge, leading you to create new mechanisms to satisfy them, and the more you have, the more you want.

Then, those who accumulated the greatest amount of wealth, institute a social contract that protects them and perpetuates their privileges. In return they offer an unjust but peaceful order, which in the long run is accepted as the only and natural order of things.

Thus, it can be seen how Rousseau's ideas served to inspire the future French Revolution, in which the Old Regime was demolished and a Republic was created. This transit represented a necessary re-foundation of the social contract, to make room for a contract more in line with the social needs of the time.