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Philosophy

The Social Contract and the State of Nature

Quick fact

Thomas Hobbes believed that in the state of nature, life was 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'—while Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued it was a peaceful, free, and equal time, and that society itself corrupts us.

Why this is interesting

What if there were no governments—no laws, no police, no courts? Would life be a chaotic war of all against all, or a peaceful, free existence? This question lies at the heart of the social contract, a theory that has shaped modern politics for centuries.