Philosophy

Philosophy Study Guide

contract with others, agreeing to laws and a central governing authority in order to ensure peaceful coexistence. For Hobbes, the social community is essentially a collection of hostile and untrustworthy individuals reluctantly drawn together to promote their individual interests. Hobbes believed that humans are fundamentally predisposed to selfishness and destruction, living originally in a violent state of nature unrestrained by laws or moral disciple. To improve their loves, humans agree to enter into social contracts by which they surrender some of their personal autonomy to a governing authority in exchange for order and protection. 10.7 Locke: The Social Contract Protects Natural Rights Locke believed that humans are governed by certain natural laws that made them free, rational, and social creatures. As God’s creations, all people are entitled to nontransferable rights, including the rights to life, liberty, health, and property, and no other person has the authority to threaten or remove any of these God-given rights. Nevertheless, despite the advantages of living in the state of nature as free and independent individuals, humans find it advantageous to come together and form a political state to ensure that their natural rights will be protected by laws and the authority of the government. Locke believed that the state is the servant of the people and if the state fails to live up to the terms of the agreement, it can be dismissed through revolution. Locke’s fundamental concepts of inalienable rights formed the basis of America’s Declaration of Independence as well as its Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Locke’s influential work titled The Second Treatise of Civil Government discusses the state of nature and it has a rational structure to it, ordained by God the Creator and manifested in the law of nature which obliges everyone: and reason, which is the law, teaches mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions. In fact, not only does the law of nature prohibit individuals from harming others, but it exhorts us to actively preserve their well-being. Locke recognized that despite the law of nature, some individuals may still invade the rights of others and even try to hurt them. In this case, each person is a government to him or herself, with the right to administer the law of nature and punish the transgressors to protect the innocent and preserve the peace. In contemplating the need for a social contract, everyone is equal and the greater the part of them are not strict observes of equality and justice and as a result, this state is very unsafe, very unsecure, and it is full of fears and continual dangers. Individuals reason that it would be in their self-interest to form a political state for the express purpose of ensuring that God’s law of nature is effectively administered specifically the following: ● Through provisions of the law of nature need to be clearly articulated because, in the state of nature, people’s inherent biases skew their understanding of the law ● Judges need to be appointed to arbitrate in the case of different interpretations of the law, again because people are partial to themselves and passion and revenge too often replace rational evaluation ● There needs to be sufficient power to enforce the law, because offenders rarely accept their punishments passively Thus, individuals voluntarily enter into a social contract with others, constituting a government (by

©2018

Achieve

Page 112

of 126