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Questions tagged [social-contract]

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How can one argue against income inequality while defending achievement and expertise inequality - beyond invoking Rawls' difference principle?

Update: Based on some of the comments and answers, I feel like I need to clarify something. I wasn't saying that scientists and intellectuals are necessarily the ones making millions of dollars a year (they usually aren't). My question is more…
Alexander S King
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What are the fundamental philosophical questions reflected in the American legal system?

I am interested in the link between philosophy and legal systems, in particular the American legal system (and English heritage) and the underlying ideas in play. At a high-level, it seems to me causation, intent, burden of proof, no cruel or…
DuckMaestro
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Is justice a zero-sum game?

I'm studying Rawls and the notion of justice being a zero-sum game has been a recurring, underlying question. His theory seems to suggest that justice works in this way, however I wonder if there are other conceptions that might describe justice…
QuizzicalTest
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Are there opposites to the "social contract theory" where humans are regarded as naturally social beings, and yet individualism is a human invention?

The social contract theories assume that people are "naturally individuals", and they give up some of their individuality in a "social contract". However, humans are also naturally social animals. Therefore, it is logically equally plausible to…
J Li
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How much if any suspension of civil liberties can be ethically justified during a "state of war"?

We constantly see civil liberties getting sacked because the country/state/city/town is in a state of war (let it be curfews or bugging civilian mobile phones). How much is ok? At what level is it too much? I ask this because we need a…
ritwik
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Metaphysical substrate and the Judeo-Christian legacy

Is the idea of a metaphysical substrate, of stories, meaningful? I have been listening to some talks by Jordan Peterson, and it seems he posits this idea of a metaphysical substrate as counterpoint to the postmodern condition, that there are real…
CriglCragl
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Does the history of modern Europe bear out Rousseau' assertion that the rule of the many cannot follow that of the few?

Rousseau writes, in Book 3, section 10 of the Contract (The abuse of government and its propensity to degenerate): There are two general courses by which government degenerates: i.e., when it undergoes contraction, or when the State is…
Mozibur Ullah
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What are Kant's Permissive Laws?

My new term brings new questions, this time concerning Kant's "Perpetual Peace" (you can read most of it here). The preliminary articles can be differentiated: All of them are prohibitive rules, but some (1,5 and 6) are "strictly valid without…
iphigenie
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What is the difference between Ethics and Social Contract

Ethics refers to society's idea of what is right and wrong and we do it because society says it is the right thing to do. Social contract is the idea that any given society has a set of conventions and trade-offs which it demands or requires, in…
Computernerd
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Is the tyrannicide perpetrated by William Tell morally legitimate?

I have recently been reading Friedrich Schiller's fantastic Drama William Tell, in which he not only relates the folkloric-mythological origin of Switzerland upon its liberation from the yoke of the Habsburg dynasty, but also posits how a rebellion…
Dr. Mathva
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Would it be immoral to duplicate food to resolve world hunger, if food and recipes were copyrighted?

In today's world, copyrighted digital content is considered illegal by most nation's law, and immoral by some as stealing. Digital Content is duplicated through millions of 1's and 0's. There is no loss in cost when someone duplicates Digital goods.…
Carter81
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What major innovations in social contract theory did Rousseau make compared to that of Plato's Crito?

In Plato's dialogue, Crito, where Socrates is urged by Crito to flee before he is executed, Socrates refuses and outlines a theory of social contact between a citizen and the city. I had understood social contact theory to have begun with Rousseau's…
Mozibur Ullah
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Is work neccessary to be happy?

I've been following some online discussions about the current economic situation. There are a number of solutions proposed to the economic malaise across much of the developed world, but one idea that captures my imagination is the idea that our…
Vivian River
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Did Hobbes start social contract theory?

There seems to be an implicit assumption in Western philosophy that social contract theorizing begun -- or only begun in earnest -- with Hobbes. As an example, this Stanford Encyclopedia entry assumes the earliest social contract account worth…
flen
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Is Hobbes describing a 0th or 1st Law of Nature here?

In Hobbes' Leviathan, specifically section The Fundamental Law Of Nature contained in Chapter XIV, Hobbes says: "And consequently it is a precept, or generall rule of Reason, “That every man, ought to endeavour Peace, as farre as he has hope of…
TomDot Com
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