Cassedy MMW 5 Social Contract Theory Hobbes vs. Locke vs.

Rousseau (Page references are to texts reproduced in the reader.) Natural state of equality/freedom Hobbes: Nature hath made men so equall, in the faculties of body, and mind . . . (86) Locke: state of nature is state of freedom and equality (287) Rousseau: Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains (387) State of nature Hobbes: in absence of fear of common power (88, 90, 96, 117, 118, 120), war of all against all (88-90); no right and wrong, no justice and injustice, no propriety, no dominion, no mine and thine distinct (90). Locke: state of freedom and equality. It preexists political society, but is not a state of limitless license (288). Law of nature = reason (289). State of nature is not purely hypothetical: That since all Princes and Rulers of Independent Governments all through the World, are in a State of Nature . . . (294). Rousseau: no private war in state of nature, no property (390). War in general is a relation between state and state, not between man and man (390). Freedom Hobbes: Right of nature = liberty each of us has to use power for preservation of our own nature (91). Liberty = absence of external impediments (91). Locke: state of perfect freedom to order our actions, dispose of possessions and persons within bounds of law of nature = natural state. Liberty vs. license. Man being born, as has been proved, with a Title to perfect Freedom . . . (341). Rousseau: in state of nature: men are born free. . . . all, being born free and equal (388) Property Hobbes: there can be no such thing in state of nature, since there is no law or justice where there is no common power (90). Locke: property exists as a function of labor, so it exists even in the state of nature (305-306). The chief purpose of civil society is to preserve it (341). . . . his Property, that is, his Life, Liberty and Estate (341). And thus the Commonwealth comes by a Power . . . and all this for the preservation of the property of all the Members of that Society (342). Rousseau: right of first occupancy: land must be uninhabited, man must occupy only what he needs for his subsistence, possession must be taken by labor and cultivation (394). Getting from state of nature to civil society Hobbes: contract = mutual transferring of right, understood as being in force for the future (94). From this
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Institution of a Common-wealth are derived all the Rights, and Facultyes of him, or them, on whom the soveraigne Power is conferred by the consent of the People assembled (121). Locke: agreeing together mutually to enter into one Community, and make one Body Politick (294-95); all Men are naturally in that State, and remain so, till by their own Consents they make themselves members of some Politick Society (296); To avoid this State of War . . . is one great reason of Mens putting themselves into Society, and quitting the State of Nature (300); quitting the natural [i.e. exists in the state of nature] power to preserve property and resigning it up into the hands of the community (342). Rousseau: the total alienation (see 389 for definition of alienate: to give or to sell) of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole community (391). Problem is defined as to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate . . . (391). Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will (392). Substituting justice for instinct, giving actions the morality they had formerly lacked (393). Man loses natural liberty and unlimited right to everything he tries to get. Gains civil liberty (393). Consent of the governed Hobbes: mutual transferring of rights, giving up ones right of governing oneself to a sovereign, so that everyone is the author (120-21). From this Institution of a Common-wealth are derived all the Rights, and Facultyes of him, or them, on whom the soveraigne Power is conferred by the consent of the People assembled (121). Locke: explicit use of term (Every Man being, as has been shewed, naturally free, and nothing being able to put him into subjection to any Earthly Power, but only his own Consent; it is to be considered, what shall be understood to be a sufficient Declaration of a Mans Consent, to make him subject to the Laws of any Government.--section 119, not in Reader). Cf. Declaration of Independence: That to secure these rights [Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Rousseau: doesnt use this precise phrase. Uses general will (392). Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will . . . . . . the Sovereign, being formed wholly of the individuals who compose it, neither has nor can have any interest contrary to theirs (392). There is but one law which, from its nature, needs unanimous consent. This is the social compact; for civil association is the most voluntary of all acts (from section on Voting). Identity of the power, how it is preserved Hobbes: terror of common power, sovereign (120-21) Locke: even in state of nature, reason prevents men from harming one another, and they voluntarily quit their powers and resign them into the hands of the community. Political Society, Civil Society, Commonwealth (342-43). Rousseau: general will (392) has supreme direction. Republic or body politic.