MIDTERM REVIEW

1. State of Nature/Natural rights.

What kind of rights and obligations, if any, are there in the state of nature.

(a) Merely rational constraints?

(b) Recognizably moral constraints?

(c) Status of the Golden Rule

Is the state of nature a state of war?

2. Justice/Legitimacy. What is justice/legitimacy? Does it exist in the state of nature? What is necessary for it to exist?

3. Original Agreement: How do people become citizens of a civil society?

(a) What are the terms of the Original Agreement/Covenant/Compact/Pact?

(b) Role of Consent: Is the morally important type of consent tacit or express, actual or hypothetical? Is consent due to fear of death binding?

(c) How do subsequent generations become citizens?

4. Civil Society

(a) Why do human beings leave the state of nature and form a civil society?

(b) What sort of binding force do laws have? When, if at all, is legislation morally binding—that is, supported by moral constraints as well as by force?

(c) When, if at all, is the exercise of executive power morally binding?

4. Sovereign and Government.

Who or what is the sovereign? Are there any moral or legal constraints on the sovereign? If so, what is their source?

Who or what is the government? Is it the same as the sovereign?

6. Democracy/Rule of the People:

(a) Must a legitimate government be some sort of democracy? If not, why not? If so, what kind?

(b) What is the appropriate decision rule and why? Unanimous consent? Majority consent?

7. The Potential for Tyranny of the Sovereign (or Tyranny of the Majority):

Do individuals have any inalienable individual rights?

Do individuals have any rights against sovereign decisions or majority decisions?

Are there moral constraints on sovereign decisions or majority decisions?

8. Right to Rebel: Under what circumstances is it permissible for citizens to rebel against the government?

Is the right to rebel a source of instability for the government?