The "state of nature" is a term used in social contract theory to describe human life before the civil society inaugurated by the contract. The way we think about this pre-contractual life tells us a great deal about how we understand ourselves and our soceity. This audio essay by A/Prof. Christopher Watkin of the Social Contract Research Network explores how the state of nature idea functions as a tool of social critique, revealing the "myths we live by" (Mary Midgley) and showing us elements of our own "social imaginary" (Charles Taylor). The essay concludes by asking to what extent our state of nature discourse is an orientalism.

This video essay is part of an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism".

A video version of the essay is available on the social contract research network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGX9SvHj36Q).

Written version: https://wp.me/p8nzID-p3r

The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network

SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw