Now, liberalism proponents disagree on how to define this minimum area, what types of states and institutions are most appropriate and so on, and what means should be used.
But, generally speaking, the central claim of liberalism includes that the state must protect some minimum area of our individual freedom.
A second central claim of liberalism is rationalism, this idea that human reason is seen as important.
In other words, the critical reasoning of the individual is assumed to allow for improvements to be made to our societies.
So this is an optimistic view of human nature, that we have individual freedom to use our reason to come up with better ways of living together in societies.
And the third claim of liberalism that we'll mention today
is …show more content…
So this is a life essentially lived in fear.
And so for Hobbes then, a social contract would be formed by people to create a political society, reflecting a desire to ensure they can get the goods they need for a decent life and also out of fear of their death.
The basis of this social contract, he argued, was natural law which is arrived at by using our reason.
And this forbids man to do anything destructive to his own life.
The source of this natural law is the natural right of each man to do whatever he considers necessary to preserve his own life.
Each man also has liberty, in other words, the freedom to do whatever he would choose to do.
And deriving from all this, in order for men to maximise self preservation, there is a general rule of reason.
In Hobbes' words, this rule is to seek peace and follow it by all means we can to defend ourselves.
And following this is a second law.
When others are willing, a man shouldn't limit his liberty against other man, again, in his words, as he would allow other men against himself in order to promote peace and self preservation.
But Hobbes accepted these natural laws were not going to be effective in the state of