Read Rawls and Noziks handout Complete questions

What do you think a social contract is?  Can you give an example of one?

My land rules Everyone must pay taxes. This should be 2.5% of their monthly earning. Everyone must speak properly and only use slang when among their peers. Respect should be given to those who deserve it, if they don’t, then you can treat them anyway you want as long as you don’t harm them. School should be free to everyone that wants it, including university. Who agrees with the rules? When considering social contracts, laws are created and derived from the people that vote them in. Here the peoples thoughts get heard through the political process. This therefore gives them the authority to enforce a standard, or in so many words, rule.

Philosophers talk about the notion of a social contract in the context of citizens agreeing to enter into a contract where the government would protect, secure them, and work towards the common good. Consent therefore given to the state. The right is to promote the general good -- that our actions and our rules, if we must have rules, are to be decided upon by determining which of them produces or may be expected to produce the greatest general balance of good over evil. William Frankena

Thomas Hobbes -Leviathan  Hobbes said that under such a contract, the ruler should agree to protect the natural rights of the people, to act as arbiter in disputes and to make laws to establish these things.  Hobbes argued that the ruler should be above the law and must have absolute power in order to prevent anarchy and social collapse.  He was actually noted to have said  Without law, life would be…’solitary, poor, brutish and short’. What do you think Thomas Hobbes society would be like?

John Locke we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so. So basically he states that if we give up some, we will gain more in the long run. But, nobody is nobody is above the law – not even the ruler. VgM

J.S.Mill Individual liberty must always be expressed in order to achieve social and personal progress. Mill rejects the concept of the social contract, in which people agree to be a part of society and recognize that society can offer certain forms of protection while asking for certain forms of obligations. However, he does suggest that because society offers protection, people are obliged to behave in a certain way, and each member of society must defend and protect society and all its members from harm. In brief, society must be given power to curtail behaviour that harms others, but no more. Summarise Mill’s view in less than 25 words.

You’re the new ruler of the Earth and want to make some significant changes. What would you change and what would you keep the same? How would you keep everyone in check? Who’s philosophy would you use?