Social Contract

Thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have different interpretations of the social contract. | Social contract theory is a concept in political philosophy concerning the legitimacy of authority and the origin of society. | In contrast, Rousseau argued that the contract binds a community together in a collective body for the common good. | Hobbes saw it as necessary to prevent the state of nature, which he believed was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. | It proposes that individuals consent, either explicitly or implicitly, to surrender some freedoms to a governing body for social order and protection.