The Concept of Social Contract Ethics

-According to the textbook, “the general idea of social contract ethics [is] that what is right or wrong is a matter of formal and informal social expectations built up over a long time.” What general ethical positions come out of social contract theory and its emphasis that societies are based on cooperation and share norms? How does social contract theory provide a means to resolve ethical dilemmas?
-Socrates refused to flee Athens and drank the poison in part because he believed he had to honor the codes of the Greek social contract at the time. Was this the right decision? Or should he have practiced civil disobedience and fled Athens to philosophize another day?
-Explain Hobbes’ view of the social contract as a device necessary for social order and governance. How did his assumptions about human nature lead him to his particular view of social contract theory and how did it shape his political solution and the emphasis that the right thing for citizens to do is to obey sovereign power?
-Unlike Hobbes, Locke rejected the concept of kings and their divine rights. How did his version of social contract theory influence the emergence of modern democracy and the US political system?
-John Rawls provided a modern spin on social contract theory, describe his basic views including his concepts of the original position, the veil of ignorance, and fairness. How would things change in the veil of ignorance if in the process of making a social contract, you did not know if you would be a human or nonhuman animal?
-To what extent does social contract really capture how a political system such as prevails in the US actually works? Is the social contract view too idealized given the prevalence of systemic racism, economic inequality, corporate power, political corruption and so on? To what extent do ordinary citizens actually have meaningful input into the social contract that governs their lives?
-At the end of the textbook chapter 7 on social contract ethics, the author provides two case studies to apply social contract ethics. Choose one example and apply the position using his guidelines for doing so.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Choose 3 of the following questions and answer thoroughly to whatever fits into one page.
- I will attach readings that will help answer questions (and if you could incorporate information from the reading into the question response that would be awesome!)
- I need to turn it in before midnight tomorrow, so if you could be done before that, that'd be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your time!