What Is the Social Contract? Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau Explained
Why do you follow traffic laws when no cop is watching? The social contract theorists had an answer: you made a deal. Not literally — you never signed anything. But by living in society, you agreed to give up some freedom in exchange for protection and order. Three philosophers explained this deal differently. Hobbes thought life without government was a nightmare. Everyone fighting everyone. “Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” So people agreed to give a ruler absolute power....