civics question

Question

Which sentence best describes the Enlightenment idea of the "social contract"?

 

A. People give up some rights in order to have other rights protected.

 

B. People must use reason and intellect in order to find truth.

 C. People of different cultures, beliefs, and ideas have equal value.

 

D. People must separate church and state in all levels of government.

Answer 1

Choice (A) -- People give up some rights in order to have other rights protected -- echoes Enlightenment Social Contract Theory.

Political philosopher such as Hobbes and, possibly most famously, Locke, used social contract theory to prove the need for government (though both disagreed on what type of government should be implemented).

Social contract theorists begin by placing us -- humankind -- in a hypothetical environment, known as the State of Nature (SON). In the SON, there is no government and no rules. A general assumption recurs within the SON that human nature (whom the human being is at his core) is selfish and even evil. Both Locke and Hobbes take this position, but Hobbes deems humankind as far worse, famously stating that, if left to the SON, human existence would be "nasty, brutish, and short."

While I will not get into the different types of governments Hobbes, Locke, and other Enlightenment philosophers believe best, I will emphasize the key point that government's existence is necessary to remove man from the SON and control his behavior, avoiding the brutality of the SON.

When a government offers to govern a person and that person agrees to abandon his detrimental ways within the SON and submit to the new rules of the government, then a contract (an agreement) that is social (between the people and the government is formed). In addition to lifting man from the SON, the government almost always offers to protect from foreign invasion. Thus, there is a social contract between man and government, ultimately leading to civil society.