This is an agreement between the governed and the government defining and limiting the rights and duties of each

Social Contract Theory is an agreement between the government and the governed defining and restricting the rights and duties of each. Social contract theory defines that people live together in a community following a contract that builds moral and political rules of behavior.

EXPLANATION:  

Social contract theory, almost as old as philosophy itself, is the perspective that one's moral and/or political duties depend on agreements or contracts between them to shape the society in which they live. Socrates employs something similar to a social contract argument to describe to Crito why he had to remain in prison and receive a death sentence.

However, social contract theory was precisely related to modern moral and political theory and is passed its first full explanation and defense by Thomas Hobbes. After Hobbes, Jacques Rousseau and Jean- John Locke is the most famous supporter of this very influential theory, which has become one of the most leading theories in moral and political theory in modern Western history.

In the 20th century, moral and political theory recovered philosophical momentum as a result of John Rawls' version of Kantian social contract theory and was resulted by new analyses of the David Gauthier’s subject and other people. More recently, philosophers from various perspectives have presented new criticisms of social contract theory.

In specific, racist-conscious and feminist philosophers have debated that social contract theory is at least an imperfect picture of our moral and political lives, and may actually disguise some of how the agreement is itself parasitical in the conquest of classes of society.

LEARN MORE:  

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, we recommend you to also take a look at the following questions:

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KEYWORDS: Social Contract Theory, Government, political theory, racist conscious, feminist philosopher  

Subject  : Social Studies

Class  : 7-9

Sub-Chapter: Social Contract Theory