Understanding the Social Contract
8/21-22/14
Do Now
• Write down the question and answer it in
your notebooks quietly. You will have 15
minutes to do this.
• Explain how their ideas on human behavior
influenced Locke and Hobbes views on the
purpose of government
Do Now 9/4/15
• Copy down the question and answer it.
• What type of governments do John Locke
and Hobbes want? (Hint determine who has
the power in their government views)
“Nature”
• 17th century philosophers used this term to
refer to people before they have been
influenced by outside pressures or training.
• They also used the term in the same way we
might use it today:
– “outside of human society”
Two Questions:
• What is man like without restraint of law or
morality?
• What is life like for Man in the State of
Nature?
The Social Contract
• Contract = agreement
– The “Social Contract” is an imagined agreement
between ourselves and the govt.
• At issue?
– Sovereignty
• “independence” or the ability to take matters into your own
hands.
– Justice
• Balance and consequences for actions
• Justice is a noun? How could we use it as an adjective?
– Call things “justified” or “just”
Three main issues
• What is life like “in a state of nature” where
there is no government?
• What are people like “naturally”? Are they
‘good’ or ‘bad’?
• What is the relationship between these
people and their government?
Overall Claim: People can quit
drugs
Warrant [evidence] 1: People don’t do drugs in Jail
First Support (warrant and/or quotation proving Warrant 1):
Second Support (warrant and/or quotation proving Warrant 1):
Counterargument and Response (if present):
Overall Claim: People are naturally crazy
Warrant 1:
As teens, people will begin listening to nonsense music for the rest of their lives,
which clearly demonstrates they have no sense whatsoever.
First Support (warrant and/or quotation proving Warrant 1):
Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” contains lyrics like this:
Working all night, traffic on the way home
And my uncle calling me like "Where ya at?
I gave you the keys told ya bring it right back"
Second Support (warrant and/or quotation proving Warrant 1):
The Black Eyed Peas song, “My Humps,” won a Grammy, an MTV Music Video
Award, and went to number 1 in three separate countries.
Counterargument and Response (if present):
Sample Court Trial
Questioner and Answer Person
• In debates, called the “cross examination”
1.Clarify
• In your opening statement, you claim
that law enforcement policies diminish
the number of drug users in society, is
that correct? …. Could you explain how
enforcement policies work to diminish
the number of drug users?
Questioner and Answer Person
• In debates, called the “cross examination”
2.Expose Bad Arguments
• In your first argument you state that law
enforcement diminishes the number of
drug users. How does it make sense, if
people in jails use drugs?
Questioner and Answer Person
• In debates, called the “cross examination”
2.Expose Inadequate Evidence
• - You claim that law enforcement strategies have
decreased the number of drug users?
• - Yes.
• - Could you demonstrate how much that number
was decreased by, through a statistic?
• - Well, it is common sense that people cannot get
drugs in jail, so they stop using them.
Sample Cross Examination
Debate with passion!
Opening statement
• We believe that cell phones should not be
ban from the school. Cell phones should not
be ban from school because in case of an
emergency we can use them to get help. For
example, one of the victims from the
Colombian shooting saved lives because she
used her cell phone to call the cops
authorities said “ had it not been for her
calling more people would have died.”
• Cell phones help with our education. We
spend 18, 000 hours in school for the
average year studying and learning. With
the use of cell phones in school we can
maximize the learning time because it will
let them conduct research when we need to
do work or learn answers to questions we
might have
• A recent study from Education world states
“when given permission to use phones for
education purposes in school students
grades rise a full letter grade” (education
world Pg.3)
Closing argument
• A much shorter intro, body, and conclusion
(compared to the opening statement)
• Restate your debate teams 3 main
ideas/arguments
• Remind the audience of your most
important ideas
• Do not introduce new information
• Make an emotional connection with the
audience
Closing argument
• The closing statement must be at least 5
minutes
• also, the closing should summarize the main
ideas of the debate and leave the audience
wanting to vote for your team for the win.
• Emphasize the key points (main ideas) of
your debate!
Closing argument example
• First of all I want to thank the jury for being
presented to hear our case. In our case we
have made the argument of not banning cell
phones. Cell phones are a great tool that can
save lives in the case of an emergency.
They have saved lives at different schools
when shootings have happened. Think
about all the children that could be saved if
they had access to a phone
• They would still be alive right now and
doing great things in the world. Not only
do cell phones save lives but they allow
students to be better educated. 9 out of ten
students would benefit from having cell
phones in the class because it would allow
them to be better prepared according to our
research as mentioned before.
• One of those 9 students could go on to
change the world if we allow them to learn
to fullest potential if we trust them with
phones in school. Think about it wouldn’t
you want your child to do great things? I am
asking you not for myself but for the
students who would benefit from cell
phones.
Final Prep for Debate:
Organizing Arguments
• On a sheet of paper, write 1-9 down the side. You need to list and
rank your arguments:
– Drop small or insignificant arguments.
– Join together similar arguments to make larger ones
• Make sure you have prepared statements for the opener and closer.
– These should state your strongest arguments.
• Questioner should have questions, and follow ups planned.
– You will also want to pay attention to the opening statement of the other side,
in case you can come up with clarification questions on the spot.
• YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED TO DEFEND BOTH HOBBES
AND LOCKE’S VIEWS.