John Locke Social Contract Essay

The idea of the necessity for a Social Contract is one which has been explored by countless philosophers, all of whom have varied ideas on why and how a social contract may come about. Within the Following essay i shall be exploring John Locke’s ideas on why humanity needs to enter a social contract and how this is gone about.
John Locke was born in 1632, around the time of the English Civil war and the ascendency of Cromwell, which can be seen as great influences on the content of his works and his political beliefs. One issue which is relevant to this subject is the amount of time Locke dedicated to refuting Filmer’s idea of divine right to sovereignty, believing instead that only God has absolute authority and this cannot be passed down through generations of Adam as man is selfish and if given the chance will only act in his own interest. Because of these ideas it is widely believed that Locke was very anti-monarchy and saw
This is important as it allows for full freedom in Locke's state while also allowing there to be legastality structure. Locke saw that the people could rise up and overthrow a government and then rebuild the state with a new government, without having to return to either the state of nature or a state of war. This is possible because of Locke's previous segregation of the stages of the Social Contract, the people can choose to leave the second stage of the contract but the Civil moral laws still remain which prevents the state dissolving back into nature. This is important because it allows for a city state to change and develop over time and to remove and instate leaders who are appropriate for the time , which prevents the stagnation of a culture or