The Social Contract

How we justify being "ruled." 14 days from Hobbes’s "state of nature" to Rousseau’s "General Will" and Rawls’s "Veil of Ignorance."

  1. Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan: In 17th‑century England, Hobbes saw the Civil War’s chaos and proclaimed that without a sovereign “Leviathan” life would be “nasty, brutish, and short.” People enter a social contract, he argued, surrendering freedom to an absolute ruler to avoid the warlike state of nature. This introduces the question of why we should obey any government at all.
  2. John Locke’s Rights: Locke lived through the Glorious Revolution. He argued that government power rests on the consent of the governed and must protect individuals’ natural rights (life, liberty, property). Unlike Hobbes, Locke believed people retain rights even under government, and can overthrow rulers who violate the contract—setting a foundation for modern democracy.
  3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s General Will: In 18th‑century France, Rousseau imagined the “general will” of the people as the true source of authority. He used a famous analogy: the first man who enclosed land and claimed it “mine” became the founder of inequality. Rousseau’s solution was that free individuals collectively decide the common good. His ideas would later inspire—and complicate—the French Revolution (liberté, égalité, fraternité).
  4. American Revolution & Founders: Inspired by Locke, American revolutionaries (Jefferson, Franklin, Adams) wrote a constitution as a social contract. They argued that government derives “just powers from the consent of the governed.” This day’s topic could narrate how ordinary colonists challenged a king’s laws (Boston Tea Party) to assert that sovereignty truly lay with the people.
  5. Mary Wollstonecraft: An 18th‑century feminist thinker in revolutionary France, Wollstonecraft asked why the social contract excluded women. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman she applied contract logic to demand female education and political rights, essentially asking: if women are born free and equal, why aren’t they treated that way under society’s rules?
  6. Al-Farabi’s Virtuous City: Centuries earlier, Islamic philosopher Al-Farabi (9th‑c. Middle East) sketched a utopian city governed by reason and virtue. He anticipated a kind of social contract: citizens willingly submit to rulers who promote true happiness (analogous to Plato’s ideal city). This item highlights how non-Western thinkers grappled with governance and legitimacy long before modern Europe.
  7. Mandate of Heaven (Ancient China): In imperial China, the emperor claimed a “Mandate of Heaven” to rule. This religious-political idea held that moral failure or tyrannical rule would strip an emperor of legitimacy. Rebels could claim a new mandate by overthrowing a corrupt dynasty. This ancient concept mirrors social contract logic: authority depends on justice, not birth.
  8. Immanuel Kant: The Enlightenment philosopher Kant offered a moral spin on contract ideas. He believed rational individuals, as “legislators” of the world, would universally will just laws. Each person must treat others as autonomous “ends,” not means. Kant’s vision is that a just society is one we’d all agree to from behind a “veil of ignorance”—foreshadowing later theories.
  9. Karl Marx: Marx critiqued the whole notion of voluntary consent under capitalism. In the 19th century he argued that social contracts were a sham: rulers pretend to represent everyone, but actually serve the capitalist class. Marx said true freedom comes not from signing contracts with the state but from abolishing private property and class divisions. His view turns social contract ideas upside-down.
  10. John Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance: In 1971, Rawls revived social contract theory. He asked us to imagine choosing society’s rules without knowing our status in it (behind a “veil of ignorance”). Only fair, egalitarian rules would make sense under that veil. This modern twist offers a mental model for judging today’s policies on justice and inequality.
  11. Thomas Paine – Rights of Man: Paine was an Englishman who made headlines in America and France. His pamphlet Rights of Man (1791) argued that all governments must respect natural rights and that it’s every person’s duty to defend justice. He insisted that if rulers betray the public good, revolution is justified. Paine’s practical contract was to rally common folk around abstract rights.
  12. French Revolution’s Slogans: The revolution borrowed ideas from Rousseau and Locke. “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” were meant to be the new social contract values. This topic could describe how the Revolution first overthrew aristocracy (legal equality) but then entered the Reign of Terror – a tragic stress test of whether ideals or power prevail.
  13. Seneca Falls & Gender Equality: In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other suffragettes explicitly mimicked the Declaration of Independence to craft their own “Declaration of Sentiments.” They listed how laws and customs denied women the social contract’s freedoms. This shows how contract rhetoric was used to challenge exclusion and demand full citizenship.
  14. 20th‑Century Welfare State: After the Great Depression and World Wars, many societies rewrote the social contract via social safety nets. The New Deal (US) or Beveridge Plan (UK) guaranteed jobs, health, and education. Here the “contract” includes economic security: citizens cede some market freedom (via taxes) in exchange for collective welfare. This final day ties the old concept to debates over healthcare, taxes, and the modern state.