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Similarities Between John Locke And Thomas Hobbes

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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 …show more content…

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

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John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were early English philosophers who each had very different views on the roles of the government and the people being governed. Their interpretations of human nature each had a lasting and vast impact on modern political science. Locke believed that men had the right to revolt against oppressive government. “‘Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

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Hobbes and Locke had opposing views and interpretations of men and their state of nature. Hobbes was around during the time that an absolute monarchy was the acceptable type of government for society. This was most acceptable to Hobbes because he believed that if society would leave man in his own state of nature he would be brutish. Also he believed that a government with

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Locke specified fundamental natural rights as life, liberty and property. By life, Locke expressed that an individuals have both a right and a duty to preserve their own lives; by liberty, Locke argued that individuals should be free to make choices and how to live their own lives without interfering with the liberties of other; by property, Locke meant that land and goods could be sold, given away, or even taken away by the government but more specifically, property also referred to ownership of one's self and the right to well

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One of the most famous lines in all of America’s documents sums up John Locke’s theory of natural laws. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” [5] This statement means that God gives us rights, such as life, liberty, and happiness. These rights cannot be taken away and are equally given by God to all men. It is easy for one to notice that this idea proposed in the Declaration is almost identical to Locke’s proposed natural rights philosophy from Second Treatise of Government.

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