Theories of Social Contract Anjali Dixit, Asst. Prof., Kanpur University BASICS OF LAW Mon, Mar 30, 2020, at ,06:48 AM Social contract theory presupposes a state of nature, various philosophers have described their own state of nature. In simple terms state of nature is the condition before a contract has been entered into, whatever may be the situation people entered into a contract either with themselves or with a single person under where philosophers are very important to understand the development of natural law during the Renaissance period. These philosophers are: Hugo Grotius Thomas Hobbes John Locke Rousseau Hugo Grotius Grotius was of the opinion that the social contract theory is a historical fact. He argued that by entering into a social contract, the people are forfeiting their right to punish the rule however bad his government may be. Thomas Hobbes Hobbes believed in the existing of natural law. However, his approach towards its study was completely different from those who regarded the idea of natural law as higher to that of positive law. He expounded upon the principles of natural law in the form of natural rights possessed by each and every individual. Hobbes Contract Under the prevailing circumstances, people, in order to get rid of their miseries, entered into a contract under which they surrendered all their rights to a single person. The law of nature can be discovered by reason which says what a man should do or not do. Man has a natural desire for security and order; this can be achieved only by establishing a superior authority that must command authority. Therefore he advises the sovereign that he must command with the natural law. John Locke John Locke too recognized the existence of certain inalienable natural rights. He categorized them as ‘life, liberty and estate’. Social justice, according to him, referred to the protection of life and the economic rights of an individual by the state. He is said to be an opponent of Hobbes for while Hobbes’s social contract is based on absolutism, Locke’s social contract is based on liberalism. Locke’s Contract It was for the purpose of protection of property that man entered into a social contract. Under this contract, he did not surrender all his rights, but only a part of them. All these rights were surrendered in order to maintain order and to enforce the law of nature. The natural rights like the right to liberty, property, and life were to be retained by man. Rousseau’s Contract According to Rousseau man entered into a contract in order to preserve the rights of equality and freedom, they surrendered their rights not to a single individual but to the community as a whole which Rousseau calls it as the general will. Kant Kant made a sharp distinction between natural rights and acquired rights and acquired rights and recognized only one natural right i.e. the right to freedom. However, the same also had one limitation; that it must harmoniously coexist with the right to freedom of other individuals.