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Philosophy vocabulary · Political Philosophy

Social contract

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCore term

In philosophy, social contract means: The idea that political authority or moral rules are justified because rational people would agree, or have agreed, to accept them for mutual benefit.

In Turkish: toplum sözleşmesi, toplumsal sözleşme

How it is used

Associated with Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, and revived in the twentieth century by John Rawls. The contract is usually hypothetical, not a real historical event. Rousseau's The Social Contract (1762) is one of the classic texts.

Example sentences

  1. In Hobbes's version of the social contract, people give up their natural liberty to escape constant war.

  2. Social contract theories face the objection that nobody ever actually signed the contract.

Common collocations

  • social contract theory
  • the social contract tradition
  • hypothetical contract
  • consent of the governed
  • state of natureThe imagined condition of human beings living without any government or political authority, used to explain why we need a state.
  • legitimacyThe quality of political power being rightful, so that those who hold it have a genuine right to rule and people have reasons to obey.
  • general willRousseau's idea of the shared will of the people as a whole, aimed at the common good, as opposed to the sum of private interests.
  • veil of ignoranceJohn Rawls's thought experiment in which people choose principles of justice without knowing their own place in society, such as their class, talents or gender.

More terms: Political Philosophy

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