Different approaches to the social contract theory in Law and Politics.

Different approaches to the social contract theory in law and politics Abstract This thesis aims to analyze individual concepts of social contract theory in works of various contractalist authors throughout history, including the 20th century. Using the method of analysis and especially diachronic comparison it tries to refute the belief that the social contract theory is only a phenomenon of the Enlightenment period of the 17th and 18th centuries, and presents the main, but also lesser known, contractalist ideas from both ancient and recent history. The thesis is, besides the introduction and conclusion, divided into five chapters and eight subchapters, some of which are also further subdivided. It follows a similar structure troughout its length, with the exception of the first (which aims to generalize the concept of social contract theory) and the fourth chapter. The second chapter is a chronologically arranged historical overview, which begins with the authors of ancient philosophy and through the Middle Ages then culminates in the early Renaissance. This is a chapter dealing with the genesis of contractualism, especially its origins in individualism, voluntarism or naturalism, as well as the concept of individual free will and the medieval phenomenon of the struggle between faith and reason, the..