Social Contrast Theory

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The notion of Social Contract bears its foundations since antiquity, from the Ancient Greek and Stoic philosophy to the Roman and Canon Law (laws/regulations codified by the Ecclesiastical Authority) while it is also hinted in the Biblical Covenant (a religious covenant to the Abrahamic Religions). During the primeval period, the notion of Social Contract predicated that individuals were born into existence within a chaotic/anarchic state whereby, according to differing versions of the Social Contract theory, individuals were either happy or oppressed within it. Thus, individuals by using their natural reason ultimately sought refuge under a “unitary authority” to rule them, while consenting/surrendering to it some of their liberties with the objective of protecting their remaining rights/liberties; by doing so societies were to be formed with “political/social” order. However, despite its longevity the revolutionary breakthrough of the Social Contract theory appeared sturdily during the Age of Enlightenment (17th & 18th century); a period of escalating reason and individualism gradually replacing the traditional/faith form of beliefs; which was inaugurated by a cultural movement of intellectuals promoting scientific methods/scepticism to further enhance knowledge. Great theorists such as Hugo Grotius (1625), Thomas Hobbes (1651), Samuel Pufendorf (1673), John Locke (1689), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762), Immanuel Kant (1797) and others; all had differing arguments regarding the aforementioned theory of Social Contract and explored it in different dimensions. The key question all these great theorists sought to answer was to discover the reason behind the “voluntary-consent” of individuals to relinquish certain amount of their libe... ... middle of paper ... ... It is a challenging feat, since it requires an empowering sense of citizenship and of communal bonding; it also requires repudiating the sense of extreme “individualism” and/or “secularism”; so as to promote the sense of membership in the “West”. Individuals with the sense of communal belonging further promote unity/trust among the multiple “strangers” of a society thus the feeling of membership becomes stronger; as Christianity promoted centuries ago on the formation of “West’s” Social Contract. Works Cited http://www.thewashingtonreview.org/articles/the-west-and-the-rest-globalization-and-terrorist-threat-by-roger-scruton.html http://billmuehlenberg.com/2005/09/21/a-review-of-the-west-and-the-rest-by-roger-scruton/ http://www.enotes.com/topics/west-rest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550994/social-contract

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