Social Contrast Theory
Must provide 2+3 pages FOR EACH QUESTION plus no plagiarism
Q1- Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor and why one or the other? Discuss in light of what Hobbes argues about the security of the state.
Q2. Explain how Kant’s second formulation of the Categorical Imperative can help us make moral choices in life and/or in business. After providing an explanation of this idea, give two examples of how this principle is supposed to work. Please provide your own examples.
Q3. Discuss the role of ethics in society in the context of Hobbes’ theories concerning the Natural state and the Civil State. Explain what kind of value ethics has for Hobbes, and how ethics is related to the social contract theory as it is found in his view of humans and society.
One of the more interesting questions concerning the philosophy of Hobbes is the question of state security. On the one hand there are many who read Hobbes as if he were saying that the Sovereign is justified in doing whatever is necessay to maintain the security of the civil state. On the other hand, there are those who argue that there is always a contractual element in Hobbes, meaning that the security of the civil state is meaningless if the individual members in the state are insecure as a result. What good is security if members are terrorized by the state?
In 2012 a man who worked for the NSA (National Security Agency) named Edward Snowden released detailed and extensive documentation exposing a vast concerted effort on the part of the NSA and other intelligence agencies both here and abroad, to gather intelligence on just about everybody using the resources of cellphone companies, internet corporations, and all available digital forms of communications. There exists no public regulation of any of this. There appears to be no transparent oversight of who exactly sees and utilizes this information, or how and why they would use it.
Snowden released highly classified material, and fled the USA to protect himself from prosecution or worse. Right now he has temporary political asylum in Russia. Many feel that he is a traitor to his country. Others see him as a hero in the age of digital/global connection.
Snowden, who is obviously very bright, is a trained CIA officer who worked extensively in the intelligence community in the area of information gathering before releasing this information. In other words, he knows exactly what he’s doing, whatever that is. That is for many at the heart of the problem named Edward Snowden. What is he doing? Snowden claims that he is doing the right thing, that he is not doing it for any kind of personal gain. He has said that it is wrong that so much information can be gathered in the name of fighting terrorism, when the invasion of privacy is so thorough and there is no guarantee that your information or mine is being used for an acceptable purpose.
