Philo 11.05 - The Social Contract Template.pdf

9 - Social Contract State of Nature Man is a stranger to war and is free. They mind their own business and wander around the forest.They are simply preoccupied with how to survive and provide for their daily needs. War is not the natural state as war is a product of a country. People don’t go to war...

9 - Social Contract State of Nature Man is a stranger to war and is free. They mind their own business and wander around the forest.They are simply preoccupied with how to survive and provide for their daily needs. War is not the natural state as war is a product of a country. People don’t go to war as individuals but as nations. Self-respect is a natural feeling which leads every animal to look to its own preservation, guided by reason and modified by compassion, creates humanity and virtue. Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Babies are free but when they grow up and go into society… then they have rules and laws to follow. Civil Liberty A higher kind of freedom to natural liberty as there is principle and moral duty in civil liberty willingly enforced on oneself. For Rousseau, he believes that the human being can govern themself What is the basis then for legitimate rule? 1. Nature Take for instance the Family. The first model of political society. There is a predestined idea that some are naturally fit to rule and some are naturally more fit to be subservient. Rousseau disagrees. The Father ideally rules out of Love. The head of state is unlikely to do this as what is good for the community may not always be loving. Just because they are analogous does not make them the same. Rousseau’s Agenda: I will explore what right permits with what interest prescribes, so that justice and utility may not be at variance. It is also not the case that some people are born as fit rulers and some that are born to be slaves. The right to legitimate rule does not come from nature. Is it possible to have a state of affairs that is just but not contrary to what is practical? 2. The Mighty The strongest man is never strong enough to be master forever. Force is a physical power. To yield to force is an act of necessity not of will. What legitimizes the government? Why is there social order? 1. State of Nature 2. Neither from nature, might nor slavery but through the people alienating their individual wills to the general will 3. People willingly give up natural liberty for civil liberty which “transformed him from a stupid, limited animal into an intelligent being and a man” The act of willingly following the rules enforced upon you, though limiting, is a recognition that it is better to have said rule as a result of the “common good” or the “general will.” That is indicative of social order. Think of your ID on campus. You cannot enter without an ID so you either avail a temporary ID or get your ID from your house even if it is a hassle. You do so because you agree to the terms and conditions that champion the security of the campus. Vis a vis to what happens in a holdup. You unwillingly surrender your belongings at their request to safeguard yourself from harm. There is no consent in this case. 3. Slavery It is not a legitimate reason to rule as it yields a very imbalanced state. There is absolute authority on one side and no liberty on the other. A society with legitimate rule is one where people are also assured of their own liberty and presupposes the freedom of its subjects. Slavery diminishes that. The Contract: Prerequisite When people become a people there is a consensus that the interest of a group/community is tied with one’s individual interest. So how do people move from state of nature to a community? There is a prevailing antagonist that forces us to work together rather than fight on our own. The problem however is that an individual may defend and protect the whole community but there is still himself and he will only obey himself and remain as free as before. General Will The solution to the aforementioned problem. Individuals subsume and surrender their individual wills for the rights of the whole community. In this way, each member becomes an indivisible part of the whole. We gain Civil Liberty. The Effect of the Social Contract The transition produces a very remarkable change in man. By imbuing his actions with a moral quality they previously lacked… Although, in this state, he gives up many advantages that he derives from nature, he acquires equally great ones in return; his faculties are used and developed; his ideas are expanded; his feelings are ennobled; his entire soul is raised.