Chapter 20 in our textbook introduces us to the social contract. For this discussion board please review the entry from Jean Jacques Rousseau (page 1046) and select one of the questions below to address in your initial thread:
1. Can people be motivated to act for the common good and not simply pursue their
own good? What happens when some members put their own good above the
common good?
2. How are we supposed to figure out what the common good requires, especially when
interests conflict? If a minimum wage law is in the interest of workers and not in the
interest of employers, what is the common good?
3. Suppose people disagree about what the common good requires: how do they resolve
the disagreements?
Questions from: page 1055 – Alex Byrne, Joshua Cohen, Gideon Rosen, and Seana Shiffrin, eds., The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, New York: Norton (2014).