Discussing the relevance of Social Contract theories in the making of ideas of Human Rights

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Abstract

The whole essay completely focuses on the theories that were given by some of the great Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John lock on social contact theories. On the other hand the research also deals with the understanding of Human rights and how social contract theories can make the ideas of Human rights. Human rights talks about the Fundamental rights of human rights and that is what Human rights are all about. It is not a privilege it is the basic human right. Doesn’t matter whatever our nationality, place residence, origin the Human rights will be given to the individual without any discrimination. These rights are made to help each other and get along with our lives. Social contact theory believe that all human being has natural right as born as human and they should be protected at all time which is very close to the concepts of Human rights. In order to get this Supreme protection we have to surrender some of our rights and power to the higher authority so that the remaining of our rights can get well protected at all time. Social contract theory is old as philosophy itself that is according to the internet Encyclopedia of philosophy. In other word we can say this theory is a model originating during the Age of Enlightenment and also typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. All these theorists like Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John lock came and agreed with the same concept but in a little bit if different manner which we will find in the details of the project. Eventually we would be able to make a link how can a social contract theory can make and well maintain the ideas of Human rights.

Introduction

Human rights are those kind of rights inherent and given to all living individuals no matter what our nationality, place where we were born, Sex,Gender or another societal status we are equally entitled to our rights which is given by the Government or by the higher authority under the constitution of the country. Moreover Universal human rights are often expressed in terms of laws, treaties, general principles and other sources of international law[1]. Simply we can understand that human rights exist to protect our fundamental rights as human being. Social contract theories can make ideas and can make better human rights. Social contract theories are as old as the philosophy itself, it started from the age of Enlightment. Social contract theories increase the possibility that the basic need and certain inherent constraints, provides us with natural basis for morality. According to the great philosopher like Thomas Hobbes say we built social agreement or social contract by the very nature of existing among each other. Some of the philosophers also described if we take all the powers and decision by ourselves we might make wrong decision or faulty decision to full fill our desires so we should surrender some of our power to the higher authority which we can call government in order to protect some of greater rights. So here we can see human rights were already discussed when forming these contract theories.

Human Rights

Every human being in the world is entitled to some certain fundamental rights and that is human rights. It is the basic human rights rather than calling it a privilege. Now let’s talk more elaborately about Human rights. Human rights are rights which are given and inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, origin without discrimination.

Again get back to the fact “rights” because they are things that you are allowed and some you are not .These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm you or hurt you or they might take your valuables possession’s if we narrow it down then we can find that rights are there to help us get along with each other and live in peace and happiness. When Human rights are not well known by people many sort of unfair practices may rise. Some of them are Discriminations, intolerance, injustice, oppression and slavery which we can find everyday in news paper magazines and also on the news. If we look at the history of World War 2 the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948 to provide a common understanding of what everyone’s rights are. Which were the basis on freedom, justice and peace for the World to make it a better place to live and prosper. All human rights are indivisible that means they cannot be separated under some special condition. Whether they are civil, political rights or the rights to life equality before the law and freedom of expression, economic, social and cultural rights, which are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent

Universal Human rights are often guaranteed by the law in many forms such as treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. Now let us discuss some of the basic forms of Human rights and they are

.Both Rights and obligations

Human rights entail both rights and obligations. The country or the states assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfill human rights. The obligation of the state is to that states must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. But we all should remember at the individual’s level while we are entitled to our human rights we should also respect the human rights of others.

Interdependent and indivisible [2]

All human rights are indivisible that means they are indivisible. Civil and political rights such as the right to life the freedom speech, social security and education and also other forms of collective rights are completely indivisible, interrelated and interdependent.

Equal and non discriminatory

Non discriminatory is a cross cutting principle in human rights law. The principle is present in all major human rights and provides the central theme to cultural sort of major discrimination. Such as eliminating the women discrimination. The principle applies to all individuals related to human rights and freedoms and it also prohibits discrimination on the basis of a list of non exhaustive categories such as sex, race, and color and so on. This is what the equal and non discriminatory principle are made out of.

Social contract theories

Social contract theory is old as philosophy itself that is according to the internet Encyclopedia of philosophy. In other word we can say this theory is a model originating during the Age of Enlightenment and also typically addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract theory states that the person’s moral obligation or political responsibilities are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live. Social contract arguments states that the civilians of the country should surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the ruler of the country to the magistrate or to the higher authority in order to get supreme protection for their remaining rights. But how ever most philosophers have argued that social contract theories are an incomplete picture of our moral and political lives.

The main social contact theorists were Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John locke.All of the theorists wrote about social contract theories in 1600s and 1700s as I have mentioned before the age was mostly referred as the Age of Enlightenment. The declaration of Independence was given by the theorist John locks in the United States of America to declare independence from the Great Britain.

Thomas Hobbes lived during the most crucial period of early modern England’s history: the English civil war started from 1642 to 1648.During that period of time there was a major class between the King and his supporters; the Monarchists who proffered the traditional authority led by Oliver Corm well demanded more power from the institution of parliament. Hobbes represents a compromise between these two factions. On one hand he rejects the theory of Devine rights of the king it was believe that kings power are the power of god according to this view the political obligation is subsumed under religious obligation. On the other hand Hobbes also rejects the early democratic view, taken up by the Parliamentarians that Power ought to be shared between the Parliament and the King. He believed that , that political authority and obligation are based on the individual self-interests of members of society who are understood to be equal to one another so power should be divided on to the people of the country and then to form a government.

According to lock another theorist of the social contract theory believe that all human being has natural right as born as human and they should be protected at all time. For John lock the state of nature is a very different type of place, he believed the state of nature was completely intolerable and so rational men would be willing to submit themselves even to absolute authority in order to escape. Locke’s arguments for the social contract and for the right of citizens to revolt against their king were enormously influential on the democratic revolutions that followed, especially on Thomas Jefferson, and the founders of the United States. So what John lock did was he managed to influence the society and agreed them to each give up the executive power to punish those who transgress the law of the nature. Having done this they then become subject to the will of the majority and finally making one political body under one government.

The social contract theory and Human Rights

For over the years there has been on and off discussion about social contract and Human rights. Specifically the discussions were around of natural rights and human rights. For example B Mc known advanced the view that human rights possess no independent existence they are mere creatures of law.

Human rights are rights which are given and inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, origin without discrimination. These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm you or hurt you or they might take your valuables possession’s if we narrow it down then we can find that rights are there to help us get along with each other and live in peace and happiness. Whereas Social contract theory states that the person’s moral obligation or political responsibilities are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live. Social contract arguments states that the civilians of the country should surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the ruler of the country to the magistrate or to the higher authority in order to get supreme protection for their remaining rights[3]. In Europe the authoritarian doctrine of the divine right of kings, evolving during the middle ages and continuing that in the asserted that kings authority was derived from the higher authority which was god himself and that couldn’t be questioned by either parliament or people. In many country and cultures people were seen as the direct descendants of god themselves. At that time people were not introduced to the concept of Human rights as a result major discriminations occurred but when social contrast theory arise during the mid 1700 people formed their own government for the smooth running of the province and they prosper greatly. After some time the human rights were introduced and people prospered more. So we can conclude that back then somehow this social contact theory brought and introduced the concept and ideas of Human Rights.

Imagine that people were living in a “state of nature” as Hobbes describes. Now let’s take an example that if everyone could sign a contract with each other governing how people to treat to each other. The aim of the contract is to create social order and making it possible to cooperate each other produces social goods. In order for the contract to best achieve its aims. so again we can conclude that this governing body is actually making the treaty among the people which is a part of the social contract theory is actually emphasizing and creating some sort of ideas of Human rights. Those who are well of or those who are wealthy enough have no need for public education, and government assistance in general so it is not the interests of these people to pay taxes in order to support government assistance but the paradox of beauty of social contact theory says everyone has to surrender in order to protect their other remaining needs and that is how it is actually creating a balance in the economy as well.

Opinion

Based on this research after looking at so many facts and support I believed that social contract theories has influenced or made the ideas of Human rights. Social contract theories talks about equality and to make a government where the rights are given by the people to make decisions on behalf of them and when a government like that can be formed or create the rights for the people or of the people eventually comes and thus I came to the conclusion that Social contract theories can make the ideas of human rights.

Conclusion

A government can provide guarantees that people will not harm one another and also people must be able to rely on one another to keep their agreements therefore we can say that we need a government for the betterment of our society for that some of our personal freedom such as the freedom of anarchy we give up and give the authority to enforce laws and agreements. These living under the government are parties to a social contract which we can easily understand and that is what the social contract theory says. Again we can say that according to social contract theory “the state exists to enforce the rule necessary for social living and thus the government is needed to enforce the basic rules and rights to the people of the country. So when government is enforcing the people rights and enforcing the law to be followed it is naturally bringing and creating the Human rights for the people to make the world a better place to live in

Reference

Human rights – http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights.html

Social contract theory- http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/sct.htm

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy-http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/

Human rights duties equation-http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0202/article_127.shtml

Human rights videos- http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights.html

Social contract theories in you tube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZAQZhzgwCI

Theorists believe-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3zLtYb_uk

[1] Its from United Nations Human rights, office of the high commissioner link http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx

[2] From the office of high commissioners explananign and classifying Human rights

Link http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx

[3] Thomas hobbes definition collected from the encyclopedia and you tube

Link : http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/

Youtube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZAQZhzgwCI