Write a 7 pages paper on theory of the social contract by hobbes, rousseau, smith and kant. The following brief discussion will outline Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theory of the social contract and compare and contrast that with Thomas Hobbes’ concept of the social contract. Subsequently, the work of Adam Smith and Emmanuel Kant as it relates to social contract theory and, specifically, the relationship of their work on social contract theory to the work of Rousseau and Hobbes will be considered.

For Rousseau, the social contract is the keystone of civil society. “At once, in place of the individual personality of each contracting party, this act of association creates a corporate and collective body…receiving from that act its unity, its common identity, its life, and its will.”(The Social Contract, 1.6)

Moreover, it is a corporate and collective body that grants equal rights to all, and in so doing, constrains every individual while satisfying each. The social contract is “the total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole community [italics added]….