In an age of ubiquitous global crises and wars, calls for a new social contract are more and more frequent, emphasizing the need for fundamental changes in the way we understand and organize the political community. This master's thesis deals with a critical analysis of the concept of social contract through the prism of various modern philosophical approaches, where special emphasis is placed on the philosophers Hobbes, Locke and Kant, whose theories of social contract are presented in the thesis.
The thesis starts with a historical-philosophical contextualization of the social contract concept, explores its development and application over time. It analyses differently defined states of nature and entry into state of society in Hobbes and Locke, and Kant's philosophy of freedom and mind, all the while thinking whether their concepts can serve as a foundation for understanding and solving the issues of modern society such as political polarization, wars, migration crisis and climate change. The thesis pays special attention to Kant's idea of a man’s emergence from his “immaturity” and “unsociable sociability”, and researches their influence on social participation and political understanding.
Through critical analysis and synthesis, this thesis concludes that rethinking civil condition and the social contract is important for overcoming current global challenges and for establishing a fairer and more stable social order as the existing models do not solve the present issues. Returning to the fundamental principles of the social contract, while adapting to new circumstances and challenges, could be important for achieving “perpetual peace” between states and within societies, which was ultimately the main objective of entering into a civil condition.
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