Hobbes vs. Locke vs. Rousseau - Social Contract Theories Compared 

I see Locke and Hobbes, in liberal and iliberal democracies. But when looking at Saudi Arabia, i can't even see any traces of social contract. KSA was formed in 1932 by persecution of ex-ottoman allies. Ottomans may have had some notion of social contract, the young turks established a republic, not so liberal but far from the absolut monarchy of KSA, which seems very opposed to contractarianism. My curiosity is about Rousseau, is his philosophy some how related to anarchism?

Interesting question! I think there's a lot of debate around the connections between anarchism and Rousseau. I think the biggest way that anarchism would align with Rousseau would be in the belief that society leads to corruption, and anarchists would likely agree with Rousseau's idea of 'man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.' Where they diverge, however, is that at the end of the day, Rousseau was a social contract theorist and so believed that government was necessary. In his case, a more communal, highly participatory, government - something anarchists would disagree with.

@@madoldmanyelling6420 It seems to me his philosophy to surrender themselves to the general will, is related to oppression which leads to anarchy. The General will of who? We need laws to keep people in check, but Rousseau should have never thought that people would not see their freedom riding away, and not stand up and protest or revolt.

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which book do you read this stuff

please help me out im kinda new here

I couldn't have said this better myself!

My book is elements of moral philosophy but I think it just mentions Hobbes@@SheilaCheruto-ix5yr

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If he be making living out of other's ignorance, there would have been millions of subscribers. Good stuff generally remains underrated

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Hey thanks! I appreciate it. I'm glad you found my video helpful. Social Contract theory can be tricky to grasp, so I'm glad I was able to communicate it clearly. All the best!😃

Thank you, I really appreciate the comment! It's something I try to go for with all of my videos. I always try to finish off in a way that'll make those watching have to think critically about the topic. All the best!

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Thank you for the comment! Best of luck with your exam! Have you tried the auto-translated captions? I hear they work pretty well. 😊

I'm glad you found the video helpful! ... thanks for the kind words and thanks for the sub! :)

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I'm glad you found my video useful! I'll definitely keep that in mind for future videos!

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This is an excellent, insightful question! Your concerns are precisely why Rousseau's philosophy is challenging to implement on a large scale. Rousseau's ideas have been interpreted in many ways. His concept of the general will is likely more aligned with your second interpretation - that it's what's best for the community, and achieved through consensus. A very difficult task the more voices you have. An example of Rousseau's 'general will' in action was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, drafted by the French National Assembly in the early years of the French Revolution. Article six states "The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to contribute personally, or through their representatives, to its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes." Here, the National Assembly was interpreting it as a way for everyone to have a voice in the political process, and leaders were to incorporate citizens' ideas in the formation of law, and law should be based on this citizen voice. This again begs the question of how do you ensure lawmakers actually follow through? As the French Revolution continued, the 'general will' was interpreted to be the success of the goals of the revolution, and any 'enemies' would end up swiftly executed. In fact, Revolutionary leaders by that time, found the Declaration of the Rights of Man too much of an obstacle and suspended it entirely. In modern societies, some interpretations have leaned more towards the will of the majority having a specific voice on specific laws. We see this in the form of plebiscites, and in the United States, direct voting on propositions during elections.

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I'm glad this helped! Best of luck with your exam!

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Thanks! Political philosophy is really interesting stuff. Greek philosophy is a bit out of my area of knowledge at this point, but don't be surprised to see it at some point! Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much for the feedback! That's what I try to go for with all of my videos.

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I'm glad it helped! There are definitely more on the way. 👍😁

Awesome, thank you!

I don't think I'd be able to do that in time for your exam... but thank you for the comment!

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Thanks for the comment! No - no makeup, just a bit of psoriasis. :/

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you found my video helpful. I guess you could say they each had an antithesis of each others' theory in some way - and hopefully by weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each one, you can think of a way to synthesize those ideas. 😉

Thanks. I’ll try my best lol.

Thank you soo much..it helped alot with my exams

Glad I could help! All the best on your assignment!

No problem 😊

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@@KorczyksClass plz make continue video on polity

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@@KorczyksClass np😉✌

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Good idea, I'll try and come around to it.. I find Rawls quite interesting so I'll see how it'll work with my schedule. 👍

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Rousseau can be the trickiest of the three to understand! In terms of the social contract, Rousseau simply believed that people need to give up their freedom for the good of the society (what he termed the general will). Only by working together can humanity reach its true potential, and that decisions would best be made by the community. His ideas, however, have historically led to tyranny and oppression, where leaders have imposed their views of what the general will should be. A major example of this was the reign of terror during the French Revolution... though this was not necessarily his intention.

Thank you. One last question 🙋‍♀️ Do you agree with Rousseau’s idea on the social contract? Why or why not?

Hmm, that's a tough one. Agree or disagree is tricky with Rousseau. I would argue that his idea of the social contract is unrealistic for large, modern societies. The idea of following the 'general will' for societies consisting of millions of people would be nearly impossible to accomplish - how do you determine what the 'general will' would be in a diverse society with many legitimate points of view?

You're so good. Thanks so much. This would help me a lot . Have a great time, thank you. ☺️

Thank you! Cheers! :)

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His interpretation of Hobbs is wrong. Under Hobbs, what ever the will of the leviathan is, that will is absolute. This does NOT imply dictatorship. Hobbs was a monarchist but Liberal Democracy is perfectly compatible with his model. This would imply that what ever laws we come up with under Democracy (The leviathan), those rules are absolute so long as the remain in effect. You can not simply choose to ignore the law. Democracy offers mechanism for changing those laws, so does absolute Monarchy for that matter. But his core tenet is that so long as the States has established a law, you are subject to it and you can not choose to ignore it. Nothing about this is incompatible with Democracy.

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