Social Contract Theory
The idea of a social contract can have broad and narrow meanings. In the broad sense a social contract can simply be short hand for expectations in relations between individuals or groups. In the narrow, more technical sense social contract theory has a long and venerable history that in the present has been rhetorically adapted to assess general expectations between science and society. A review of various theoretical perspectives nevertheless raises questions about the adequacy of such adaptations.
Social Contracts in General
Contracts in the strict sense are agreements between two parties that establish mutual obligations and are enforceable by law. The idea of a social contract is more fundamental, and argues that society comes into existence as a kind of contract. In the classical or premodern views that are sometimes identified as anticipations of social contract theory, the social contract is not so much an originating action as one that implicitly exists between a preestablished order and individuals within it. This is, for instance, the view argued by Socrates in Plato's Crito. The modern view, by contrast, is that individuals come first, and through their agreement establish a new phenomenon called the state.
For most modern theorists this contract is not a historical event, much less an actual legal document, but an ideal construct to aid in postulating how things should be.
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