It appears that the concept of the "rational man" which is a cornerstone of Social Contract Theory as it this definition that behaves as an adhesive to the remaining theoretical parts--that of the State of Nature and why Nomos (man made laws) seems to have prevailed of Physis (nature).
Taking Hobbesian view of SCT, one could accurately say that people traded their natural rights of liberty and property in order to preserve the natural right of life.
From a Lockeian view, one could accurately say that the role of gov't is to preserve all three natural rights i.e. life, liberty and property.
Given our current juncture in history e.g. that of a perported on going climate crisis and ever increasing of finanacial disparity among the have's and have not's of society, would you say that the social contract has failed or that it is still intact?
I ask this because the contract, whether understood from a Hobbesian or Lockeian, national or international, perspective, while seeming to generate apparent stability and safety, seems to additionally provide this in only in the immediate sense. So, does the future matter if it is not in the present? Do contract holders have obligations toward posterity if they are yet to be born? Does the social contract mean forever more or simply, the now? If there's no obligation to the unborn, what about to the newly born, or the young? Does society owe them stability? Is an increasingly destabilzing world perfectly okay so long as you're "safe"?
Taking the Attenborough documentary into account, the paradox appears to be a form of stabilized anarchy with projections and a trajectory for the worse. While the contract seems to be intact, it also seems to be signed upon a house of cards. In otherwords, my home is perfectly fine, but the neighborhood is burning down around me. Which responsibilities do I uphold or dismiss as a "rational" agent in such cases? So long as I have MY "safety" and "happiness" am I tasked with upholding my end of the contract when it seems to be failing for so many others?
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