Social contract ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social contract ethics - Essay Example The idea of social contract originated in philosophical doctrines of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Even though all of them used the notion â€Å"social contract†, each of them had different understanding of how exactly people conclude the contract. This means that ethical principles of social contract are also different for each theory. Still all of them agreed in one crucial point: to create efficient social contract every individual should follow the terms established in the particular kind of agreement. In fact this means that if people live together they need to sacrifice a part of their personal freedom and restrict themselves in different aspects of their lives (Holcombe 1978). It is quite obvious that any ethics require some sorts of restrictions of human personal freedom. As far as humans are the kind of beings who frequently make certain actions that can be harmful for others who live next to them in society, ethical principles are supposed to teach humans how to act no t to harm. Basically, the main principle of social contract ethics is: do as you would be done by. Otherwise it would’ve been impossible for people to cohabitate together. Hobbes’ doctrine of social contract claims that people need to conclude the kind of agreement because their nature is evil and destructive. According to the agreement people give their personal freedom under someone’s control (either monarch’s or government’s) and the society lives in order following some strict rules established by the dictator.