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Thomas Hobbes's Social Contract Theory

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The first interesting discussion about the idea of the decision from citizens to accept the rules of the law can be found in Platon and Socrates thoughts, but Thomas Hobbes it is seen as the philosopher who firstly analyzed the modern Social Contract perspective.

Hobbes´ theory generally it is divided in two sections: the human behavior or motivation and his social contract theory, burn from the idea of state of nature, which means in his own words “the liberty that each man has to make his own decisions about how to use his own power for the preservation of his own nature—i.e. his own life—and consequently the liberty· of doing anything that he thinks is the aptest”. At the same time, Hobbes built the theory of Subjectivism to explain how humans are self-interested, as we pursue our individual best interest, so our motivation is based on the desire to improve our situation, and generally satisfy our own, individually subjective desires as possible.

In addition, Hobbes argues that we are rational. In his idea, we have the capacity to identify our desires as efficiently and maximally as possible, but we do not evaluate our outputs.

Our self-interest and rationality, as perspectives of human beings, drives us, according to Hobbes, to sought the willingness of individuals to submit ourselves into a “political authority”. According to him, men´s self-interest and rationality, will give the possibility to accept the authority of a Sovereign in order to be able to live in
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