Hobbes And Locke
Hobbes and Locke Outcome 2 . Thomas Hobbes was born in Wiltshire, England in
1588 just prior to the Spanish Armada. Philosophy is defined by Hobbes as the
reasoned knowledge of effects from causes, and causes from effects. Hobbes was
educated in Oxford where he learnt about the great classics and also of
Aristotle, however Hobbes disliked Aristotle’s approach that democracy was the
best form of government. Hobbes spent many a year on the continent and his
disliking for Aristotle’s works grew, when he returned to Britain there was a
civil war underway so he left the country again and wrote several pieces of
literature, these include the, “De Cive” and “The Elements of law”. Later on his
book the “Leviathan was published”. Hobbes died in 1679 after becoming one
well-known political writer, but he has not been forgotten and his political
thought lives on. Hobbes’s most famous piece of work the, “Leviathan” presents
life before government was formed this was what Hobbes referred to as the,
“State of nature”. Hobbes believed that every man was naturally equal and due to
this war was inevitable because every man was for himself. War would be
inevitable as fought for material possession and for basic necessities like
water and food. The first of these, “causes of quarrel- maketh man invade for
gain, the second for safety and the third for reputation”. With this continuing
state of war and would produce a lifestyle in which there would be no society,
industry or trading. As Hobbes states that there would be; “No knowledge of the
face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and
which is worst of all, contains fear and danger of violent death; and the life
of man solitary, poor nasty, brutish and short.” For Hobbes the, “State of
nature” was a way of rationalising how people would behave in their most basic
state. Hobbes advanced from what René Decartes stated “I think , therefore I
am.” Hobbes used the individual as a building block from which all his political
theories arose.
Hobbes formed his theories by way of empirical observation and
he believed that the universe was just atoms in notion and therefore could be
measured by geometry and mathematics and could be used to explain human behaviour. According to Thomas Hobbes people would willing give up all their
rights to everything and anything as long as every individual was willing to do
this. Nevertheless basic human nature would not allow this and with no way of
controlling it people would soon break it in an attempt to control a greater
share of power over one another. Hobbes recognised that in order to ensure the
stability and peace in his opinion this could be achieved by means of a Social
contract. Hobbes realising that the only way to maintain order among the people
would by having an authoritarian government. He gave the government the name of
Leviathan which when translated means monster. This meant that in exchange for
individual rights the people would have in return peace, security and protection
from one another. The people would not want to return to the basic state of
nature and therefore would not protest against the government which would have
power over their natural liberty. The social contract would at first be set-up
by men to establish a commonwealth which in turn would be governed by a
sovereign to whom in the interest of self preservation, simple right to govern
oneself is abolished. The sovereign may be an individual or a group of
individuals who are not part of the social contract. However the citizens
themselves are part of the social contract and this means that they will obey
the sovereign and obey the rules that the sovereign has enforced. Since the
sovereign has all power there would never arise any contract between the
subjects and the sovereign to break. To add this once the contract has been
established the subjects need to seek the sovereigns permission to break it. As
a result of forming this contract nothing that the sovereign does can be seen as
unjust and as a result of establishing this contract an artificial man or
leviathan is formed. Hobbes gives the sovereign absolute power. Hobbes allowed
for three different kinds of commonwealth there was; democracy, aristocracy, or
Monarchy.Hobbes preferred the Monarchy because the monarch cannot disagree with
himself. Finally Hobbes was a great believer that only in peace and security can
people develop to their full potential. In order for this to be so Hobbes places
in an authoritarian government, to govern the citizens. However Hobbes believes
that a self-government is absolutely impossible to achieve and declines any
doctrine of natural light. Hobbes was considered to be the first liberal
thinker, however it is only right to now turn our discussion to John Locke, the
father of liberal democratic thought. John Locke lived from 1632-1704 and during
this period England was more politically traumatic than any other time in its
history, he attended Christ Church in Oxford where he was a student for many
years and became greatly interested in the great philosophical and scientific
questions of the time.
