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Why do we have laws? Discuss the concepts of the state of nature and social contract.

User Dwenaus
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14 votes

Answer:

Accordingly, Locke held that the obligation to obey civil government under the social contract was conditional upon the protection of the natural rights of each person, including the right to private property. Sovereigns who violated these terms could be justifiably overthrown.

Step-by-step explanation:

The state of nature, for Rousseau, is a morally neutral and peaceful condition in which (mainly) solitary individuals act according to their basic urges (for instance, hunger) as well as their natural desire for self-preservation. The social contract is unwritten and is inherited at birth. It dictates that we will not break laws or certain moral codes and, in exchange, we reap the benefits of our society, namely security, survival, education and other necessities needed to live. The purpose of the social contract is to serve the common or greater good to ensure the sustainability of the system in question and protect the individuals within it. As such, the social contract generally guides moral behaviour. The Social Contract is a political piece of writing that serves as a pylon for the democracies of today, as it theorizes the elements of a free state where people agree to coexist with each other under the rules of a common body that represents the general will. A precept or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.

User Bobbyz
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