Análisis comparativo de la teoría del contrato social en Hobbes y Rousseau

Abstract

The present work develops a comparative analysis of the theory of the social contract in Hobbes and Rousseau, highlighting the central elements of said theory, such as: the state of nature, civil state, conception of the human being, the State, the social contract, and society. For this we refer to the primary and secondary sources of the authors to analyze, some of the works of the authors are: The Leviathan (1651) and De Cive (1642) by Thomas Hobbes, and The Social Contract (1762) by Rousseau. In this context, it is necessary to highlight that this theory is based on contractualism, which helps us to identify how the State and society arise. For this, it will be necessary to know how the transition from a state of nature to a civil or political state takes place, the first can be defined as a state prior to society, that is, the moment in which men lived freely and without the domain of political power. On the other hand, both Hobbes and Rousseau define the civil or political state as a state subsequent to the social contract, in which society is already formed and the Government appears as the guarantor and regulator of certain rights such as security, self-preservation, and privacy social peace. Thus, after analyzing the fundamental categories of the social contract, the main similarities and differences present in this theory will be identified.