What makes it possible for people in the state of nature to establish the social contract, according to Hobbes? What motivates them and what choices do people have to make for it to be successful?
According to Hobbes, the state of nature defines people as selfish and always concerned about gratification of personal needs at the expense of others. The state of nature, thus, places people in a predicament of fear and anxiety of attack from others when they manage to acquire their desires. The conflict that is imminent in the state of nature forces people to establish the social contract where each gives up their natural right to attack and take what the other has acquired (Hobbes, 2016). The social contract is not an explicit decision by the parties involved because people are born into structured societies with stringent laws and regulations.
The social contract sets a common platform on which people enjoy common liberties that enhance mutual co-existence in the society. The social contract is supported by a political system where people are promised security of self and property in exchange for some of their natural liberty (Fossen, 2019). According to Hobbes, the decision to give up certain personal liberties is natural and is driven by natural desires for self-preservation. The transfer of liberties is, therefore, a mutual undertaking that is geared at establishing a society with common protections from selfish intentions that are natural and inherent in human beings.
In the social contract, people are motivated by the presence of contracts and laws in the civil society. The social contract is in conformity to the prevailing levels of civilizations where people make the decision to transfer their natural rights and liberties and allow themselves to be governed by common principles (Hobbes, 2016). The inner desires for self-protection and orderliness in the society also informs people’s decisions to establish the social contract. Beneath all exhibitions of selfless conformity to the civil principles is an innate sense of self that drives people to accept the social contract as a means to self-preservation.
References
Hobbes, T. (2016). Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Longman Library of Primary Sources in Philosophy). Routledge.
Fossen, T. (2019). Modus Vivendi beyond the social contract: Peace, justice, and survival in realist political theory. In The Political Theory of Modus Vivendi (pp. 111-127). Springer, Cham.
