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A Comparative Study Of Thomas Hobbes’s Social Contract With John Locke’s Social Contract In Their Political Philosophy
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Plato is of the view that the
individuals and state are logically related. It is through the
individual that the society emerges. This implies that the individual
exists before the state, as the state radiates the individual
constitution of the citizens. The citizens jointly radiate the qualities
of the state. Moreso, the state emerges due to the economic needs of
the people. This implies that one man cannot make a state; he needs
others to solve his economic needs. He needs the artisans, the cooks,
the dry-cleaners, the doctors, the lawyers to help him out in various
ways or he cannot be all these at a time. This network of economic
relationship and interaction brings about the formation of a state.
Apart from these, wars have their root in passion, desires which are the
most fruitful source of evils both to individuals and state7. To settle
the war, we employ the tripartite nature of the soul as divided by
Plato. They are: craftsmen, representing the appetitive element, the
guardians representing the spirited element and the ruler representing
the rational element.
For Aquinas, the state is a natural
institution. It is obtained from the nature of humanity8. Unlike Plato,
who holds that humanity’s needs are not only natural and material needs,
they also have a super-natural ends. He stated that the state can be
explained in terms of God’s creation comprising the state and the
church. The church comes into play here in order to help man attain this
ultimate goal. Left alone, the state is not equipped for this. The
state needs to meet humanity’s social nature. It secures the common good
by maintaining the peace and controlling obstacles to the good life.
This function of the state in controlling obstacles to the social life
is the point of connection between the state and the church; the state
is under the control of the church.9 This does not make the church a
super-state.
According to Rousseau in his book, the social contract
begins with the oft-quoted line “man was born free, and he is everywhere
in chains†(49)10. He started by describing the state of nature. He
sees the state of nature as that in which every person is independent.
No one depends on the other for his well-being. A geometric progression
in the growth population made people to invent social contract. This
invented social contract brings about all sorts of vices.
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