Session 5 Theories of Social Contract

   Socrates believed in the rule of law as has been explained in the reading. A few days ago I attended a session on the rule of law by a retired justice of supreme court of Pakistan at Lums. He kept giving example of socrates and he said that nothing comes before law. You have to obey the law no matter what. While answering a question asked by a student he said that you cannot even protest against the laws, for instance if you think a law is not being rightfully implemented then you cannot protest, you need to come into a position where you can do something to amend the law.
  
      I personally found his point of view or his interpretation of socrates' theory quite absurd. I mean why are people not allowed to protest against certain laws? There are very few opportunities for minorities in  Pakistan to rise to a status where they can get into the positions where they might be able to make amends in the Blasphemy law. I mean the Blasphemy law of Pakistan has affected the minorities negatively in several cases. Don't they have a right to protest?

       Hobbes' theory of state of nature depicts a quite negative picture of a man as if he is left to act freely according to his own will than he'll surely try to bring harm to fellow human beings. Hobbes believed that interference of the State and it's laws is all that makes the society a better place. But there are societies as hunter-gatherer societies for example the Nuer of southern Sudan that had almost 0% crime rate among the tribesmen. They had no absolute hierarchy and lived quite like primitive man. They had certain rules in hunting and sharing of food but other than that there was no definitive State or Laws. This might support Locke's idea that men are not necessarily hostile in nature if left free to act according to their will.

       But then men are naturally self-interested as Hobbes' has stated. If we look at our own country or any other modern states people are just fighting to gain more power or access to more resources. It's like a never ending war amongst different individuals. In that case the interference of state and the state laws or the social contract is necessary to maintain a peaceful environment. People do need each other to fulfill their own desires or needs as Durkheim has explained this phenomenon of social cohesion or order as 'mechanical solidarity' for pre-industrialised states and 'organic solidarity' for industrialised states.