ABSTRACT
This chapter looks briefly at a number of theories of obligation and then explores more thoroughly one type of theory that has received less attention than it deserves. It examines the theory in its most familiar form, as presented by Hobbes and Hume, and shows how this theory of obligation can be expanded by taking some insights from Aristotle and Rousseau. Both Hobbes and Hume describe the basic task of government as the provision of political order in the most minimal sense: security and protection, defense of citizens against external attack, and settlement of internal conflict. Rousseau writes as though he had Aristotle in mind when he constructs a strikingly parallel argument in the Contrat social. Like Aristotle, Rousseau argues that the political situation is essential to the good life, because participation in political society brings into being justice and moral activity and creates an order of values, a better, more human life for man.
