Hobbes Vs Enlightenment

“Nothing in Nature stands still; everything strives and moves forward.” Stated German linguist Johann Gottfried. For centuries, people solely believed that God was the source of all knowledge, truth, and logic. Nature was proven to dictate the fate of all man and this fate could not be changed because nature was created by God himself. And since he was the most divine, so was his creation. However, individuals began to stray from the beliefs imposed by the Catholic Church and began to look to the observable and tangible; Science. As the European society began to progress, as did the economy. During these periods, philosophers began to communicate their conceptions of humanity. Philosophers Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam

Hobbes lived through the English Civil War where religion and its influence on authority, produced conflict. To understand why the war occurred, Hobbes began to observe humans in what he called their “State of Nature”. Hobbes concluded that nature without society resulted in war. Without the state, humans proved to be naturally selfish, competitive, greedy, and brutish with impulsive tendencies. To intervene war and human impulsiveness, a state was required to regulate society and sustain social order. He also believed that conflict arose from the natural differences of power humans possessed. He argued that nature predisposed an individual to how many friends or relationships they could have, how many riches they could have, etc. Evidently, nature bestowed more natural powers to some than others. Therefore, these inequalities would result in conflict which also needed to be regulated. Opposingly, English philosopher John Locke believed that humans were naturally social and did not need the regulation of

Capitalism contributed to the possessive individualistic nature of humans. As Jean Jacques Rousseau explained, the origin of inequality was created when “The first person who, having enclosed a piece of land and said this is mine…was the true founder of civil society”. In other words, once an individual claimed something as their own, was the beginning of private profit. Smith believed that humans were economic animals who did what it took to exchange one thing for another. Personal benefits and profit was the primary motivation for merchants. Merchants demanded for free trade which would give them access to maximally expand their labour. Additionally, at the expense of their workers, they continued to collect profit through the division of labour and the lowering of wages for profit maximization.

Undoubtedly, these various events had an impact on society and the intellect of individuals during this time. The Enlightenment gave people the chance to express their controversial views on life of which led to the progression of society. It gave people the chance to exercise their liberties, natural rights and reasoning. While these philosophers attempted to understand humanity and its nature, there was more that had yet to be