An Understanding Of Morality By Using A Social Contract Essay

Introduction: An understanding of morality, the reasons to be moral, and the reasons certain actions are considered morally right or wrong is essential to the task of determining the way society functions and the way individuals ought to act. This task has been at the forefront of ethics in philosophy for centuries. Contractualist ethical theories have proposed answers to these questions. Contractualist ethical theories are essentially theories that explain morality by using a social contract, or agreement. In order to determine whether contractualism has been successful at answering questions of morality a comparison of the two main contractualist theories is necessary. Mutual-advantage contractualism is the first of these theories and argues that morality should be understood as a contract between self motivated parties. However, the disadvantages and objections to the theory have caused some philosophers to favour the second version, reasonable-agreement contractualism. Reasonable-agreement con tractualism argues that a contract has developed between members of society from actions that are considered morally reasonable. However, like mutual-advantage contractualism, the theory has disadvantages and objections. Therefore, an understanding of the ways both version of contemporary contractualism attempt to solve the problems raised in the objections will then be of use when determining which version of contractualism is best, and whether contractualism as a whole isShow MoreRelatedHobbes And The Natural State Of Man1617 Words   |  7 Pagesnature and his theology. From this pessimistic view of the natural state of man, Hobbes derives a social contract in order to avoid civil war and violence among men. Hobbes views his work as laying out the moral framework for a stable state. In reality, Hobbes was misconstruing a social contract that greatly benefited the state based on a misunderstanding of civil society and the nature and morality of man. 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