Similarities Between John Locke And Thomas Hobbes

Leading up to the 17th century, Europe was a mess of divided religions and constant warfare between groups. It started with the Protestant Reformation where the Catholic Church had gained too much power and the commoners felt the abuse. The Church had the ability to sell indulgences and owned too much land. This led to a split in the Catholic Church between the clergy and the peasants. The Thirty Years war took place from 1618 to 1648 and left Europe in shambles for almost one hundred years later. This led to the rise of absolutism starting in France under the control of Louis XIV, and the debate over how to properly rule. Two English philosophers by the name of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke emerged with different ideas about the ideal way to

Hobbes believed that if man was put in a state of nature with no governing force they would be in a constant struggle for power or endless warfare, saying “Therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which neverthelesse they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies…”(Hobbes in Perry, pg.21) This quote demonstrates Hobbes’ pessimistic view of man in which he acts always in his own self interest, even if that means war. On the other hand John Locke believed everyone is granted natural rights. These rights include “life, liberty, and property.”(Locke’s Two Treatises of Government) In the state of nature without government protection, Locke believed people could be deprived of these rights. His basis for this belief comes from the Book of Genesis in which God gave Adam these same natural rights. “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty, and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men…”(Kishlansky, pg.28) Locke emphasizes the importance of property, which includes the natural rights. Nobody could take that away, especially based on the premise of every man being