Social Contract Theory Explained Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, and the Ideas That Built the Modern State
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- Englisch ausgewählt
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Beschreibung
Produktdetails
Einband
Taschenbuch
Erscheinungsdatum
09.09.2026
Verlag
Amazon Digital Services LLC - KdpSeitenzahl
194
Maße (L/B/H)
21,6/14/1 cm
Gewicht
231 g
Sprache
Englisch
EAN
9798172934513
Why should anyone obey a government at all?
A police officer stops a car on an empty road at two in the morning and tells the driver to step out. The driver does it. Nobody is watching, no force is being used, and he could drive away. He obeys because of an arrangement he has never examined and cannot remember agreeing to.
Three men spent their lives trying to explain that arrangement, and their answers built the modern state.
Thomas Hobbes, writing in exile while England executed its own king, concluded that authority must be nearly absolute or it will not hold. John Locke, writing while his associates were hanged for treason, concluded that power is a trust and that a government which breaks it may be removed. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, chased between cities by magistrates who burned his books, concluded that a people can be governed lawfully, peacefully and well, and still not be free.
This book takes all three arguments apart in plain language and shows exactly how each one is built. No jargon, no assumed background, and no pretending the theory has no holes in it.
Inside you will find:
- The complete argument of each thinker, from the state of nature to the sovereign
- Why each man's picture of human nature decides his politics, and why the same is true of every political argument you hear today
- The three states of nature and the three sovereigns set directly side by side
- The critics given their full say: Hume, Burke, Marx, Carole Pateman on the sexual contract, Charles Mills on the racial contract, and the anarchist objection that the theory has never met its own standard
- How the same tradition produced the Declaration of Independence and the Terror
- Rawls, the veil of ignorance, and why the idea came back in 1971
- What the theory says about taxation, immigration, emergency powers, obligations to future generations, and the terms of service nobody reads
Written for students and general readers alike. Includes diagrams comparing the three systems, a guide to reading the original texts, a timeline, a glossary of key terms, discussion questions and full references.
If you have heard the phrase and want to know what is actually in it, start here.
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