Against social contract theory

Social contract theory is unsatisfactory simply because, assuming an agreement or a contract is in place (an idea that is not-so-easy to digest for many humans), if states are artificial constructions of humans, then one is obliged to examine their merits. Are they good enough? The best possible? For what purpose and under which metric? Could there, perhaps, be another, better, alternative? At the end of the day, if we are building (and building on) (theoretical) constructions that are in any way artificial, anything goes. It is essentially at this exact point and for this specific reason, that the should entered political philosophy, never to leave it since. It is the artificiality of the state (according to social contract theorists) that explains how political philosophy, as soon as it was born, was basically transformed into political theory (see also §00.02.10).

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