Political :

1. Social Contract Theory Political :

2. The main problem is Why does everybody accept to obey to a leader ?

3. Why do some people want a revolution? • We saw last year Egyptians and Tunisians (and others...) doing their revolution, after many years of dictatorship

4. Contrary to these revolutions, in England the Queen chooses the Prime Minister after elections; • And even if someone doesn’t agree with the policy, he doesn’t want to fight with rifles. • Everybody seems to agree with the democracy, with or without a queen.

5. Queen Elizabeth II reads the Queen's Speech to lawmakers

6. Our philosophy problem • Why does some people accept to submit to a dictotorship, and others try to make a revolution. • The English Revolution is a interesting example : English people cut their king's head off in 1649. • But now, they accept their King (or Queen) as the leader of the Commonwealth. • Why did they do it ? And why don't they do it again ?

7. King Charles 1th' s beheading.

8. In order to answer these questions, we could follow the philosophers' work : Two English philosophers have written about political, and the agreement between the people and the political leader. They both lived during the English revolution.

9. Here is the first : • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first modern English philosopher. • Two Hobbes’books : « De Cive » (1642) and « The Leviathan » (1651)

10. Let me introduce you Thomas Hobbes • Hobbes left England, et went to the France during the first Revolution. • He thought about relationship betwenn the King and the Parliament. • It was the beginning of his philosophy.

11. The second (friend of ours, now) • John Locke (1632-1704) loved freedom, and wrote after the Glorius Revolution two books, to explain what the politician’s duties and people’s rights are: • « Two Treatises of Government » (1690)

12. First argument :The theory of the state of nature In order to understand why men accept to lose their freedom, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke tried to imagine what happened when policy and society did not exist :

13. Read this Hobbes’text: • “Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” From « The Leviathan », 1651

14. So the state of nature is like a war. Hobbes thought : « The man is a wolf for the man. » What does this sentence mean ? Try to explain it, with an analogy or an example.

15. Hobbes explained: Two reasons lead to this reality First : “So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory.”

16. Second: “ Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.” Leviathan, chapter 13.

17. Try to explain these two sentences, et imagine the human life, without society and law. • What could it happen? • How can you tell the difference between the war and the peace ?

18. According to Hobbes, what are the consequences ? • “In such condition there is no place for industry […] no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

19. Which name could you give to this situation ? a) The paradise ? b) the survival of the fittest? c) Home, sweet home ?

20. Hobbes thought he found a solution, for fighting the war from the state of nature . Can you imagine this solution ? No you can not ? So read the next text :

21. “A COMMONWEALTH is said to be instituted when : • 1) a multitude of men do agree, and covenant, every one with every one, that to whatsoever man,or assembly of men, shall be given by the major part to be their representative; • 2) every one, as well he that voted for it as he that voted against it, shall authorize all the actions and judgements of that man to the end to live peaceably amongst themselves, and be protected against other men. • 3) From this institution of a Commonwealth are derived all the rights and faculties of them, on whom the sovereign power is conferred by the consent of the people”

22. Here is a picture which was on Hobbes' book cover. Book' s title was « The Leviathan »

23. Hobbes wanted the peace. Did he also want the democracy? “ because the major part has (hath) by consenting voices declared a sovereign, he that dissented must now consent with the rest; that is, be contented to avow all the actions he shall do, or else justly be destroyed by the rest.”

24. Think about Lybia, Syria, Tunisia, and read this text : “And because the end of this institution is the peace and defence of them all [...], it belonged of right to whatsoever man or assembly […] 1) to do whatsoever he shall think necessary to be done, for the preserving of peace and security, 2) by prevention of discord at home, and hostility from abroad; 3) and when peace and security are lost, for the recovery of the same.” Leviathan, chapter 18

25. Do you have the right to do so for the peace?

26. To answer this question, we need to know what the social contract is : What do you wait from your gouvernment ? Peace ? Secutity ? Liberty ? What do you think your gouvernment need in order to do what you expect ?

27. The answer of John Locke

28. We can see he used the same method as Hobbes did : « To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in »  From Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment Chapter 2, Of the state of nature.

29. How could he imagine this state of nature ? Which kind difference could you find with Hobbes' theory ?

30. The state of Nature « that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. » from Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment, Chapter 2

31. The origin of the commonwealth : • « If man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom? why will he give up this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and controul of any other power? » from « Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment » Chapter 9 : Of the Ends of Political Society and Government.

32. «→ yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others → the greater part no strict observers of equity and justice, → the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very unsecure. » from Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment Chapter 9

33. You are to read and understand what John Locke thought. • What is the Locke’s first answer? • Can you tell the difference between State of nature and Law of nature? • Do you understand the contradiction between the freedom and unsecurity?

34. Locke's description of the Social Contract : On the one hand : « Men, when they enter into society, give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of nature, into the hands of the society, to be so far disposed of by the legislative, as the good of the society shall require.» from Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment Chapter 9

35. On the other hand : • « yet it being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve himself, his liberty and property; (for no rational creature can be supposed to change his condition with an intention to be worse) the power of the society, or legislative constituted by them, can never be supposed to extend farther, than the common good » Chapter 9

36. What is the balance Locke looked for between State power and individual liberties ?

37. « Absolute arbitrary power, or governing without settled standing laws, can neither of them consist with the ends of society and government. » From Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment Chapter 11

38. « This were to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded by a single man, or many in combination. » from Second Treatise of Civil Gouvernment Chapter 11

39. Conclusion : Could you explain the origin of people's revolution, with these explanations ? What does people expect from the Commonwealth ? What are the limits of the State power ? In order to answer these question, Patriot act is a good example. Do you know it ? Do you think riots in London last summer were the beginning of a new revolution ?