A Comparative Study Of Rawls' Social Contract Theory And Modern Social Contract Theory

The social contract idea is a very important theory in the field of political philosophy, what’s more, it originated in the ancient Greek.The modern social contract theory not only make the social contract idea have a complete theoretical form, but also make it to get a great promotion and popularization.But with the rise of utilitarianism, the social contract theory gradually faded.After entering the20th century, by reconstruction of the social contract theory, Rawls make it own new form and new appeal.At first, this paper respectively expounds the Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau’s social contract ideas, and further compared these three ideas.Then this paper outlines the Rawls’s social contract theory, and compared with the modern social contract theory.Considering the differences within the modern social contract theory, the author show the relationship between the Rawls’s social contract theory and the modern social contract theory.Preface mainly introduces the development process of the social contract theory, the background of the Rawls’s social contract theory, and the study of domestic and foreign scholars on the related issues.The first chapter analyzes the modern social contract theory, and emphatically analyses the theory of internal connection and difference.The second chapter, respectively, from "theoretical background","theoretical content" and "question and defense" these three aspects, outlines the Rawls’s social contract theory.The third chapter mainly shows the two parts:one is the main differences between the Rawls’s social contract theory and the modern social contract theory; the other one is the contact between them.The last part is the conclusion. The author thinks that, the difference between the Rawls’s social contract theory and the modern social contract is significant. Rawls simply using the theory framework of social contract theory as his model and made the social contract theory become more abstract.