Would you sign a Social Contract?

[Aphex_Twin]

This is a gross misinterpretation of the idea of the social contract neatly packaged into a silly joke to make people dismiss the real idea of the social contract before they even learn what it actually is.

For a start, the social contract is an agreement between each citizen and every other citizen, not between a government and a citizen. The government has no authority to make a contract, because it does not exist until society has formed by means of the social contract.

We do realize that we have to present evidence for our claims. You posit the existance of such an agreement. Where is the proof?

I, for instance, have not agreed.

 

[Brighteye]

Where did I posit the existence of such an agreement?

I said that the social contract is an agreement between every citizen and each citizen. I didn't say that it was currently in effect.
I will say that it ought to be in effect, because I regard it as the only plausible basis for morality or society, but what I think should be and what actually is are two very different things.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Where did I posit the existence of such an agreement?

I said that the social contract is an agreement between every citizen and each citizen. I didn't say that it was currently in effect.
I will say that it ought to be in effect, because I regard it as the only plausible basis for morality or society, but what I think should be and what actually is are two very different things.

I am sorry for the confusion, then.

So would you also say that, without such an agreement, a government is not something that is just to exist (at the present moment)?

 

[Brighteye]

I don't entirely understand your point. I'll make a guess though.
A government at the moment has no moral authority; its authority is derived solely from the physical force it can command. The only true basis for moral authority is the social contract, to which none of us have agreed. Thus there is no justice at the moment, because there is no (properly formed) society. There can be no justice (giving each man his due) without society to define what each man is due.

I hope that you can find your answer in that.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

@Brighteye
That's certainly a point I can respect.

You had me in a loop out there because most comments in favour of the state have an implicit acceptance of the legitimity of violence (excluding defense).