Lord of the Flies Scenario

The Island

1.Imagine that all the students in the school were transported to an island where there were enough natural resources for you to live on, but where no one had lived before.

2.What actions would you take for your group to survive on the island?

3. Who would decide what to do and how to do it?

•Now imagine you discover another group of people living near you on the island. You are competing for water and for food.

•What does your group do?

•Who decides?

Questions and Conclusions

•How do we act when there are no rules or laws?

•How do we decide who is in charge?

•How do we balance the rights of individuals with the common good?

Key Vocabulary

•State of nature: a condition where everyone has perfect freedom; no rules; “every man for himself”

Key Vocabulary

•Natural rights: rights we are born with and should expect others to respect (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)

Key Vocabulary

•Social contract: Individuals agree as a group to give up certain freedoms in exchange for protection and welfare under a government. They give that government the power to make and enforce laws.

Thomas Hobbes

•English Enlightenment Philosopher, 1588-1679

•Wrote Leviathan (1649) in which he explored society and government.

John Locke•English

Enlightenment Philosopher (1632-1704)

•wrote Two Treatises of Government (1689) that also explored society and government.

Are the ideas from these

philosophers the same or different?

Hobbes…

•STATE OF NATURE: Believed people were naturally wicked and couldn’t be trusted to rule themselves

•SOCIAL CONTRACT: Believed that a monarch or dictator should have absolute authority to keep order and protect people from their own evil

Locke…•STATE OF NATURE: Believed people

were reasonable and moral and had natural rights that existed apart from government.

•SOCIAL CONTRACT: Believed in a cooperative, reasonable form of government that people agree to, and that can change if it fails to guarantee their natural rights