What is the social contract?

0:00 Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn! If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:11 Okay Mira, what massive brain-twisting question are we tackling today?

0:16 Picture this, Finn. You are at recess on a beautiful sunny day. The playground is packed, but suddenly all the teachers completely vanish. Oh wow!

0:27 No teachers at all? That means no rules, no whistles blowing!

0:32 Exactly. No rules about sharing the equipment, no rules about taking turns on the slide, and absolutely no rules about where you can run.

0:41 Honestly? That sounds like paradise! I would run straight to the best tyre swing and I would just stay on it forever. Nobody could tell me my time was up.

0:51 It does sound fun at first, but wait, what if a much bigger kid decides they want the tyre swing? And since there are no teachers and no rules, they just walk up and push you right off.

1:03 Hey! Wait a second! That is incredibly unfair!

1:07 But Finn, without rules, there is literally no such thing as fair. Fair is a rule. Without rules, it's just a question of who is the biggest, who is the strongest, or who is the fastest.

1:20 Oh, I didn't think about that. I guess I'd have to find some friends to help me guard the swing.

1:26 And now you're building an army! Today we are asking a huge question. What would actually happen if there were no rules at all? Would it be a beautiful paradise of total freedom, or would it be a terrifying disaster?

1:40 I went from excited to nervous in about 10 seconds. Okay, at first I really thought having zero rules sounded great, but now I'm kind of nervous about getting pushed around.

1:50 You are definitely not the only one to worry about that. Philosophers have a special name for this imaginary time before any laws or governments existed. They call it the state of nature.

2:03 The state of nature, like just humans living out in the wild woods, like animals.

2:09 Yep. Imagine no cities, no police, no courts, no principles. And a very famous philosopher named Thomas Hobbes spent a massive amount of time thinking about exactly this, way back in the year 1651.

2:27 1651? That is over 300 years ago. Who was he?

2:32 He was an English philosopher, and it's really important to know what was happening in his life at that time. He was living through a completely terrifying period called the English Civil War.

2:45 A civil war? That means people from the exact same country were fighting each other, right?

2:51 Exactly. It was so incredibly dangerous and chaotic that Hobbes actually had to run away from England and live in exile in Paris just to keep himself safe.

3:03 Oh wow! So he wasn't just imagining people being mean on a playground. He was seeing real adults act terribly to each other every single day.

3:12 You nailed it. Seeing all that fighting and danger made Hobbes believe that human beings are, deep down, naturally selfish. He said if there were no rules and nobody in charge to enforce them, life would just turn into a war of everyone against everyone.

3:32 A war of everyone against everyone? That sounds completely exhausting. You would literally never get to sleep.

3:39 Right. You would always have to protect your food, guard your house, defend your favourite swing. You could never relax. Hobbs said in that situation there would be no art, no building, and no learning, because everyone would be too busy just trying to survive the day.

3:59 So wait, if Hobbes thought we were all just naturally selfish and constantly fighting in this state of nature, how did we ever stop? Why aren't we still just throwing rocks at each other?

4:11 That is the perfect question! Hobbes said that while humans might be selfish, we are also really smart. And more than anything else in the world, we want to be safe.

4:22 Yeah, being safe is definitely better than constantly fighting over a swing or worrying about your sandwich getting stolen.

4:30 Exactly! So, Hobbs imagined that people eventually got so tired of the danger that they made a giant deal with each other. They said, listen, I will promise not to steal your stuff or hurt you, but only if you promise not to steal my stuff or hurt me.

4:49 Oh, it's basically like a giant worldwide pinky swear.

4:53 Yes, exactly like a giant pinky swear. But here is the catch. People are tricky. How do you make sure nobody breaks the promise as soon as your back is turned?

5:05 Uh, I guess you have to put someone in charge to punish anyone who breaks the pinky swear.

5:10 Finn, you are thinking exactly like Thomas Hobbs! He said the only way the deal works is if everybody agrees to hand over a bunch of their freedom and power to a strong ruler. You give up your absolute freedom, and in exchange, the ruler gives you absolute safety.

5:29 Okay, wait, let me get this straight. We literally invented rules and bosses just so we wouldn't get squashed by our neighbours.

5:37 That's exactly it! Hobbes called this brilliant invention the social contract.

5:43 The social contract. I actually really like that. It's like we all signed an invisible piece of paper saying we agree to behave, just so we don't have to live in a total nightmare.

5:53 Yes, it is the very foundation of society. We trade away our wild freedom to do whatever we want, and we get peace and safety in return. But here is where the story gets really wild. About a century later, in 1762, another incredibly famous philosopher came along and totally, completely disagreed with Thomas Hobbes.

6:19 Really? Who would argue with the giant Pinky Swear? Who was it? His name was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And he looked at Hobbes' idea of the scary, violent state of nature and said Hobbes had it completely backwards.

6:34 Backwards? How do you have the state of nature backwards?

6:38 Well, Rousseau argued that before rules, cities, and property existed, people were actually naturally good and deeply peaceful. He thought early humans just wandered around happily, minding their own business.

6:54 Wait, but if humans are naturally good and peaceful, why do people do so many bad things today? Why did Hobbes see so much war?

7:04 Russo believed that it was society itself that ruined us. He said the moment someone put a fence around a piece of land and said, This is mine, all the trouble started. Society, money, and unequal power are what make people greedy and mean.

7:22 Hold on. So Hobbes said rules save us from our own bad nature, and Russo said our nature is wonderful, but society messes us up.

7:32 You explained it perfectly, and we can actually test this. Let's go back to our playground with absolutely zero rules. What actually happens if you leave a bunch of kids alone with a single ball?

7:45 Hmm. Well, at first everyone grabs for it. But usually within a few minutes, someone just invents a game, and we make up rules for the game on the spot. Like, if the ball hits the grass, you're out.

8:00 Exactly! We naturally want to cooperate and have fun. We don't just fight forever. We invent rules so we can play together. Russo thought we needed a new kind of social contract. One where the people make the rules together, instead of just handing all their power to a scary boss.

8:20 Wow! So next time I'm arguing with my friends about whether a ball was out of bounds or who gets to go first, we are actually making our own social contract.

8:31 Yes! You are deciding together what the fair rules are so that the game can survive. That is the social contract happening in real life, right on the grass. Every single time you wait patiently in a line, or share a snack, or keep a promise, you are participating in it.

8:51unknown Haha.

8:52 That is kind of amazing. We are doing deep philosophy on the playground, and we didn't even know it. Totally.

9:00 It is literally how we figure out how to live together on this planet without making each other miserable.

9:06 Did Hobbes really, truly think life without rules would be that awful though? Like, worse than anything.

9:14 He really did. In fact, here is a mind-bending fact for you. Hobbes famously wrote in his book that life in the state of nature would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

9:28 Yikes! Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. That sounds like the worst review of a place ever. I am definitely 100% glad we have rules now.

9:43 Me too! And it remains a huge open question today. Are we naturally selfish and need strict rules to make us behave, like Hobbes thought? Or are we naturally good and just need rules to help us coordinate, like Rousseau believed? Philosophers have been arguing about this for hundreds of years.

10:05 And honestly, nobody actually knows for sure, right? It's probably a little bit of both, because sometimes I really, really want to share my toys. And sometimes I just want the swing all to myself and don't care about anyone else.

10:21 Spoken like a true philosopher, Finn. We are all a little bit Hobbes, and a little bit Rousseau. Alright, Finn, time for the quiz. Are you ready?

10:31 Okay, I'm ready. I think I remember all the names.

10:35 First question. Who was the philosopher that thought life without rules would be a war of everyone against everyone? Next one. What major, scary event did Thomas Hobbes live through that made him think people needed a really strong ruler? Question 3. What do philosophers call the giant imaginary deal, where people give up some of their freedom in exchange for safety?

11:10 Here's number four. Who was the philosopher from 1762 who completely disagreed with Hobbes and said people are naturally good? Last question. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, if humans are naturally good, what is the thing that spoils them and makes them greedy? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is the philosopher who thought we were naturally selfish was Thomas Hobbes.

11:46 For question two, the scary event he lived through was the English Civil War. three, the answer is that giant deal is called the social contract. Question four. The philosopher who said we are naturally good was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And the final answer is, Rousseau said it is society, along with things like money and unequal power, that spoils us.

12:12 Wow, I am never going to look at the playground the same way again. Every time someone yells, that's out of bounds, I'm going to think of the social contract.

12:22 Me neither. Rules can definitely be annoying sometimes, especially when you just want to do your own thing. But they are the invisible magic that lets us live and play together safely.

12:35 Yeah, I definitely prefer the social contract over getting pushed off the tire swing by a giant kid in the state of nature.

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13:18 Bye everyone. Keep wondering!