The Social Contract: The Myth of Modern Democracy

The Social Contract is a foundational idea in the history of political philosophy. Modern democracies are largely based on social contract theory: the theory that laws and governments are created through agreements between free, rational, and self-interested individuals. In this video I discuss the most influential social contract theorists: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. You’ll learn about their various contributions to social contract theory, and about the differences between them. But we’ll also discuss some problems with social contract theory. For starters, when did we sign this social contract? Is the social contract real? Or is it rather a metaphor that helps us think and talk about political community. Towards the end of this video we’ll hear from Virginia Held, a twentieth-century feminist philosopher who mounts some potent critique of social contract theory and offers up an alternative way of conceptualizing political obligations.
#socialcontract #Hobbes #Locke #Rousseau #Held
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[@GreatBooksProf]

📚Watch another political philosophy video 👉: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3e8ZYCKeZd8pKc

[@theyfukenwmesubliminally]

Humans are social by nature, family, then comes tribes, we identify with one another and have an innate sense of empathy, as you zoom out and populations grow, different tribes and groups of people get into conflict, then stuff like leaders and authority and contracts become relevant, the natural empathic relationship you share with your tribe, you dont share with people outside of your immediate community. Thats where an agreement is needed, but before that there has to be a disagreement, conflict. Then someone with distinguished power or qualities or resources has a way to exert authority. Like you can look at mammals that live in groups, gorrilas, lion prides, elephants, they have social norms "contracts", i dont imagine they ever sat down and discussed how they should come together to live and set norms, its natural basically. The species naturally need one another, a young naturally needs the mother to survive, theyre inherently related to one another, unlike reptiles for example, and you can see they arent social animals.

[@phoenixx00]

Hey Professor, I wanted to express my gratitude toward you for taking time to create these videos. I recently concluded a Political Theory class that has left me wanting to learn more about philosophy. Your videos have expanded the depth of my understanding of great thinkers, while introducing me to others. Your content has become indispensable to my pursuit of knowledge 🤝.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Hey, that’s very kind of you to say. I’m glad you’ve found the videos useful. And I’m happy they are deepening your appreciation of political theory. What was the most interesting thing you read in your course?

[@phoenixx00]

As someone from a republic, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan was an interesting read. It was especially captivating to read in-depth arguments in favor of monarchism, particularly absolute monarchism, which I have never encountered. How fascinating it was to view people and society through a foreign lens.

[@GreatBooksProf]

@@phoenixx00 Agree. Super interesting!

[@atrapanasatromhtos9426]

​@@GreatBooksProfwhat is your opinion on democracy the god that failed by Hans Herman hoppe

[@zeff]

Thank you, Professor! I really enjoy your videos 😀 The editing and the content is getting better and better 👌🏽👌🏽

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks, Zeff. I’m working on it! 😅

[@aal-e-ahmadhussain3123]

This altruistic investment in “a future we will never see” is a better framing than what preceded it. It also suggests that we are biologically geared to work for an “after-life” - and this holds even if we insisted on a “selfish gene” conception free of altruism.

[@aadijeevaraj8377]

this is such a well rounded video, resolves a lot of ideas from abigail thorne's video called the hidden rules of modern society, & just generally is so well made! from the skits to that bful green screen. you should definitely keep making more videos like these

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! I appreciate that. I thought Abigail’s video was pretty great too.

[@jameskelly4196]

"Please sir, may I have some more!" ;-)

[@johnnydeppsky3510]

This one is a hard one :) Was expecting another easy to digest video made by so random dude. But it was very academic and I had to rewatch it a few times. However, I did enjoy it a lot. Thank you for your work!

[@markrochon1387]

Wonderful! More, please.

[@NiallMacSuibhne-zc2mx]

Surely chapter one of Rousseau 's treatise makes many of the basic points about family. He uses the term "father" in a way that parents would now be used.

[@newhorizonsforfifty2833]

I appreciate your videos. It helps me not forget what I learned, and it helps me update what I learned to the world as it is now.

[@ashdurante9939]

I suspect that the algorithm will start to take note of this excellent content in the very near future... Your work is informative, entertaining and erudite. Thank you for sharing it with the world 🙏

[@GreatBooksProf]

That’s very kind of you to say! Thanks for checking out the channel.

[@ProgressiveWindsor]

These videos are so well made!

[@GreatBooksProf]

I’m glad you like them!

[@carlosmarioaraujo]

Excellent content! Thanks

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks for watching!

[@gavinjennings4267]

Fantastic channel, have my politics and classics Leaving Certificate exams next week, and your videos have been a great help.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Happy to hear the videos have been helpful. Good luck on your exams!

[@UnadulteratedHipHop]

Great mate!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks!

[@commonwunder]

9.15 "A lotta white guys" You can only ever be... of your own time. The current zeitgeist holds everyone in its grasp.

[@bernardofitzpatrick5403]

Awesome lecturer 🙌🏽

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thank you!

[@tronspace]

Excellent video

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[@lazyupload]

Can you do one on the subject of representative democracy and how it actually works in reality?

[@naemus3672]

Awesome video!

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thank you for watching!

[@MarcoSilesio]

such a great video, reminded me of the old school john green. such charm

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks! That's high praise!

[@lannyrayconnelljr]

Great video Professor! I wonder if it might be helpful to consider that before there can be a mother-child relationship there must be a father-mother relationship, in proper Christian terms, a husband-wife relationship. Social science is learning what the church has known all along; that in order for a society to exist it not enough to base it on individuals or partial families but on the entire family. Truthfully the nuclear family probably isn’t sufficient either, society needs grandparents aunts & uncles and even trusted neighbors.

[@tomwoolsey1089]

This rules. Great video

[@GreatBooksProf]

Thanks, Tom! I appreciate that.

[@petrospaulos7736]

mothers today behave based on the "facebook-group-contract" they are in :) Our society is a sophisticated jungle... You can also say that animals in collectivities also have a "contract" in their genes. And also bees, have a monarchy! Every system needs some rules (sometimes very simple) in order to achieve stability or growth. Nature established those rules for us but (as usual) we want to credit someone for those rules

[@haidiradwan3868]

This is so underrated

[@LockheedMartinEnjoyer]

So i havent read Held's paper, but what would she define as a society? Because even then the inverse is still true and she hasn't attacked it.

[@jeremyg591]

Is it in fair comment to think that the idea of social contract theory is over-thought? I think one flaw of European philosophy is an over reliance on abstracting reality to the point where it almost separates from it and loses practical purpose. It can be understood that if you envision a small tribe 10,000 years ago, it is innately understood that to join the tribe and receive its collective survival benefits, you must provide for the tribe and work towards being a respectable member. In turn, the tribe must give you something of value, ideally. Modern nationhood in relation to its populace is more or less the exact same premise with larger populations - economically dependent demographics being those who don’t care to sign the “contract” and revolutions to overthrow the government being when the government fails to uphold their end of the bargain. Perhaps I’m missing the point? 😅

[@177SCmaro]

Yeah, there is no such thing as a "social contract" in the first place. One is not morally obligated to anything they did not explicitly agree to. "Socal contract theory" is little more than a thin, vague rationalization for the majority forcibly exploiting the minority or individual. "Social contract theory" would be like your neighbor sending you a bill every month for the benifit of the shade from his tree for part of the day.

[@asphaltpilgrim]

Do I detect a Ryan George influence? 😊

[@janynesattler]

Great video! Allow me to suggest an additional feminist critique to the social contract theory: the fact that it is entirely dedicated to the maintainance of patriarchy. Carole Pateman's The Sexual Contract is fiercely critical of the way the thought experiment was itself conducted by those white dudes of Modernity, but she does not sugggest, as Held, that "care" ethics or politics may serve as one possible alternative (even as tought experiment), and focuses on 'democracy' as the key political concept for us to insist on.

[@GreatBooksProf]

This is really helpful. Thank you! I have heard of Pateman but haven’t read her work before. Will check it out!

[@wil_robertson2185]

The trucks are secretly social contract theorists

[@robertcox14]

"Imaginary Contract" STOP feeding us ignorance, Homer Simpson!

[@LoveVanillaRose]

Hobbs was also a Jesuit 🤔

[@gamergamer5345]

BS

[@GreatBooksProf]

B+

[@alexpettiford]

So sad that you had to make a point of saying 'a lot of white guys'. Grow up.

[@GreatBooksProf]

Where’s the lie?