| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,090,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Despite outward appearances, social contract theories, from ancient to modern times, contain core mythical elements which lack the grasp of logic. Such theories contain the poetic or the mythical leanings of the theorists themselves. For example, Plato in Protagoras, through the mouth of Protagoras, sets forth a mythos in which he explains how humans came to form society among the primitives. Also, Hobbes imagines the natural state of man as warlike with all against all. We investigate and elucidate upon such mythical elements of each social contract thinker while noting the relationship between their theory and mythos. In the first part, we give a broad overview of the ancient social contract theories centering around Hesiod, sophists, and Socrates-Plato and then compare the views of the natural state and other aspects in ancient and modern social contract theories. In the second part, we deal with the social contract theories in modern age. First, we discuss the social contract theories in the English Enlightenment tracing its genealogy and shed some light on their mythos concerning the natural state. Second, we clarify the stance of the social contract theory in political thoughts in France, especially we elucidate the mythos which Rousseau's social contract theory contains. Third, we consider the social contract theory in German political theory and the mythos hidden in the thought of Kant and his social contract theory.
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