Humanities 17th-20th Centuries within Art, Music, Literature, and Philosophy - Essay Example

As time progressed other philosophical views entered into society as well, some of the main ones being focused on romantic realism or otherwise "the return to nature" through Rousseau's philosophy. There were an extensive number of philosophical thoughts, and even Darwin had a profound place in them and these time periods. The varying social contracts of these periods had not only an impact on people in public but also in private as well as they were ideally relative to politics and focused in on politicians, bureaucrats, and even on private spousal relationships/family life in some ways (Ramia 2002).

Furthermore, classical liberalism evolved during this period and with it; within the context of the social contract there were ideas adamantly affected such as, independent choices, and individual consents on specific societal issues. One could say that the contract brought about many individual freedoms but also led to there being a need for a larger and stronger legal body present in society in order to uphold the rights of citizens in squares and marketplaces. The cause of these changes as well as the ideal of the social contract stemmed from the rapid rising of industrialization and the various markets economies (Ramia 2002).

Due to this form of individualism and freedom each individual had rights too; and it was found that the contract freed individuals from any form of positive obligation to one another. Furthermore, it was this social contract that was used to implement distributive justice in society to ensure that law was upheld and all individuals had their rights and freedoms kept intact, which provided a form of social protection (Ramia 2002). Due to these social contracts and how they affected the general public, Locke devised a philosophical framework through his own thoughts concerning this which was titled, "Natural Law" (Grant 2000).

History finds that it was Locke's theory in itself that moved those of Western thought into a new direction, as his philosophy emphasized a civic duty to obey the laws of society rather than from the body of authority alone. Locke's philosophy proposed that since the social contract developed laws that were consented to by the bodies of the people in mutual agreement, then of course they were powers that should be naturally followed, such as a natural duty or as he termed it, "natural law" (Grant 2000).

Because Locke defined people as being reasonable then his philosophy showed that if there were indeed reasonable people in the body of the society defined by the social contract then they would accordingly devise natural laws that would become redefined into natural duties due to the binds of the social contract. In other words, Locke was proposing that the social contract was indeed a universal duty that required citizens to act a certain way among one another because it was the logical way to ensure human rights on an individual basis and of which made and kept a rational society.

Again, Locke's philosophical reasoning was the key in shifting many societies'