essays on hobbes and locke

Discuss the Characteristics of Locke’s Man in the State of Nature and Thereafter Compare or Contrast them with the Characteristics Described by any other Republican Theorist The State of Nature is a useful philosophical model which allows social contract theorists to present their understanding of human nature and offer a justification for the erection of government. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have both submitted competing versions of such a state in Two Treatises of Government and Leviathan respectively, and they arrive at very different conclusions. An evaluation of their conception of pre-societal man accounts in large part for the divergence in their views on what form a Commonwealth should assume and what powers it should be endowed with. This essay will analyze Locke’s man in the state of nature and subsequently juxtapose it with Hobbes’ in an effort to shed light on the differences between two of the great 17th century thinkers. Locke uses the state of nature as the starting point for his second, and most salient, Treatise. This is a condition where there is for men “a State of perfect Freedom to order their Actions and dispose of their Possessions, and Persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the Will of any other man.” From this very first sentence, it is evident that Locke follows in the Natural Law tradition which states that men inherently have a moral sense which restricts them from engaging in certain acts. By virtue of being children of God, we know what is right and wrong and by extension what is lawful, and we can therefore resolve conflicts fairly consistently. As a result, for Locke, the state of nature is not a state of License because man “has not Liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any Creature in his Possession, but where some nobler use, than its bare Preservation calls.
No two political philosophers think alike. Political philosophers, depending on the time they lived, will have an outlook similar to that of the time period. Views can compare or contrast, that which reflect on a philosophers view of the State of Nature, man, the Civil State and power of the sovereign. Two prime examples of differences verses similarities in political philosophers is Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Thomas Hobbes lived from 1588-1679; he resided in England during the reign of Henry VII, who was a monarch, followed by Elizabeth I and James (VI) I. During this time the Church of England was established and created for political reasons with no central religious leader, after this was the Stuart Dynasty, which was accompanied by religious problems. Finally a new government arose called Commonwealth with a dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II. At this time, there was a period if chaos, killing, the Civil War and anarchy. This is what greatly affected Hobbes writings. During this time new rulers emerged and it was known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. At this time, a scientific awakening affected Hobbes; he gained more knowledge of political philosophy. He looked up to and worked with Galileo and Newton. In the Leviathan, Hobbes major political philosophy work, he established political theory on a scientific basis. Hobbes sees the State of Nature as conditions of man before any state or civil society or government existed. Hobbes sees man in the State of Nature as equal and evil. Man is equal in the state of nature, he states There is no reason why any man trusting to his own strength should conceive himself made by nature above others, they are equals who can do equal things one against the other  (Hobbes 760-61). Hobbes also put in plain words that men are evil resulting in their actions towards one another, All men in the.
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John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were both social contract theorists and natural law theorists. They were philosophers in the sense of Saint Thomas rather than Sir Issac Newton. Locke can rightfully be considered once of the founding fathers in the philosophy of liberalism and had a gigantic influence over both Great Britain and America. Locke believed that man was a social animal by nature while Hobbes believed that man was not a social animal and that society would not exist were it not for the power of the state. Locke, on the other hand, said the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens. Thomas Hobbes spent a good part of his life dealing with and creating theories on how society could and would function without rules. Many other theorists during Hobbes lifetime called him a lunatic and crazy. Probably his most famous quote on the state of natures was this, “life is brutish, short and harsh, in the state of nature.” In other words, what he seemed to mean was that people would use any means to accomplish that which was in their own self interest. Regardless of what it was, food, money or shelter, people were in competition, always. Government according to Hobbes was there to protect the citizens from themselves through force and intimidation. John Locke was much more passive and positive in outlook. He posited that in general, people were innately more peaceful and willing to coexist rather than compete. Locke believed in the contractual relationships of the people and government. Contracts such as the United States Constitution, for example. In Locke’s theory any elected official who does not adhere to the contract should be removed from office, by any means necessary, and replaced with someone who will honor all legal contracts between people and government. Best Plagiarism Checker & Proofreader > Another difference between the two philosophers was.
by jamesd@echeque.com Locke and Hobbes were both social contract theorists, and both natural law theorists (Natural law in the sense of Saint Thomas Aquinas, not Natural law in the sense of Newton), but there the resemblance ends. All other natural law theorists assumed that man was by nature a social animal. Hobbes assumed otherwise, thus his conclusions are strikingly different from those of other natural law theorists.  In addition to his unconventional conclusions about natural law, Hobbes was infamous for producing numerous similarly unconventional results in physics and mathematics.  The leading English mathematician of that era, in the pages of the Proceedings of the Royal Academy, called Hobbes a lunatic for his claim to have squared the circle. The Grolier encyclopedia contrasts Locke and Hobbes as follows: Locke’s considerable importance in political thought is better known. As the first systematic theorist of the philosophy of liberalism, Locke exercised enormous influence in both England and America. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke set forth the view that the state exists to preserve the natural rights of its citizens. When governments fail in that task, citizens have the right—and sometimes the duty—to withdraw their support and even to rebel. Locke opposed Thomas Hobbes’s view that the original state of nature was “nasty, brutish, and short,” and that individuals through a social contract surrendered—for the sake of self-preservation—their rights [.] Locke addressed Hobbes’s claim that the state of nature was the state of war, though he attribute this claim to “some men” not to Hobbes. He refuted it by pointing to existing and real historical examples of people in a state of nature. For this purpose he regarded any people who are not subject to a common judge to resolve disputes, people who may legitimately take action to themselves.