A social contract

[David Banks]

I came upon something interesting recently, the idea of a social contract - presumably an imagined agreement whereby people agree on how to live together.

Before developing a contract, it is apparently necessary to have a view on how mankind is "in the state of nature." Are we interested only in our personal survival and that of our immediate family, or, as we move from villages to towns to cities, do we have a natural tendancy to "do to others as we would have them do to us"?

Next, getting to the social contract, there is the idea that, before our birth, we have the opportunity to enter a negotiation of the social contract rules which will apply to us. The "wrinkle" is that, at the time of the negotiation, we have no idea what social status we will have at our birth. We may be slave or free, rich or poor, healthy or sickly.

Is this a useful idea to consider?

[Shabbychic]

Sounds like another one of David Cameron's crazy ideas.

[David Banks]

Some people believe this model ignores merit and personal enterprise.