Social Contract Theory of John Locke

Social Contract Theory of John Locke Given the honored and extensive authority that the social contract theory upholds, the supposition still endures various assessments. The view that people’s ethical and political responsibilities are reliant upon a contract between them to structure a society is also precisely linked with current ethical and political theory. John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704), a prominent truth-seeker among other professions of the 17th and early 18th centuries, is primarily recognized for the creation of his influential social contract theory. Censors dispute that most people are raised within an existing society and not presented with opportunity to opt a social contract; therefore, Locke’s social contract theory is considered invalid. Locke’s refute to the censors alleged that a keen understanding of how social contracts transpire must occur prior to the advancement of individuals in the social order. This paper will entail the social contract theory of John Locke and how the values identified are consistent with the criminal justice system (Uzgalis, 2007, ¶11).
The State of Nature The social contract theory commences with the idea of a state of nature; the central idea that criminal justice systems are not in existence. The breakdown of effects result in the lack of protection provided; the inability to instill safety measures; and the neglect of civil rights pertaining to property and to individualized refuge. Public order is in disarray resulting in people relying on self-help methods to resolve differences of opinion. The individuality of existence within a state of nature is one of the primary areas under discussion that differences occur among social contract philosophers. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, John Locke’s colleague in philosophy, whom references a state of nature as a battle of everyone in opposition to one another, Locke references state of nature, not as a circumstance of warfare, but nevertheless a problem. Locke theorizes that a