Leviathan Vs Hobbes

If suddenly society crumbled to pieces and there were no laws, no leadership, and utter chaos, could man ever find a way out of the rubble and war? Thomas Hobbes believed so, and in his book, Leviathan, he explains that the nature of man, initially selfish and war-like, would eventually strive towards order through slow development of a social contract of political absolutism. Written after the turmoil of the English Civil War, the book has a lot to say on how man ought to be governed to ensure that the past never repeats itself. Hobbes believed that in order to succeed, society needs the input of select members of society with the authority to rule over the rest, while also maintaining the monarchy, or Sovereign. Although Hobbes was one of

He wrote many things that inspired the Constitution, including the belief that all people are born with certain inalienable rights like life, liberty, and right to own property, “every man has a property in his own person…the labor of his body and hands are properly his” (71). Unlike Hobbes, Locke believed people were not inherently evil, they could govern themselves, and did not need a sovereign power. Locke also had a different idea of what the state of nature was. He believed that it was a world of perfect liberty in which citizens can conduct their own lives as they see fit, “the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it which obliges everyone”; the state of nature was not a world of chaos and all-out war, as Hobbes would suggest (69). Hobbes believed that the only way to prevent the war against man was to create a strong government with absolute power that focused on keeping people in line. Locke believed in a government that was for the good of the people, not one that ruled over them, “civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living’ (73). If the people began to believe that the government was no longer protecting their liberties, they had the right to revolt. I believe that Locke was more optimistic than Hobbes. He believed that people were good and could learn from their mistakes. Hobbes lived through the English Civil War; this made him question all of humanity and apparently lose faith in it. He wrote his book during this time of turmoil and tension, and drew himself to the conclusion that selfish greedy men need a strong figure to rule over them. It makes sense that he has a more pessimistic view of the social contract and human nature because of what he experienced in