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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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Locke wanted a government to protect our natural rights. Hobbes believed that power resided to the Monarch. Locke believed that power resided to the people. Hobbes believed that a government’s power cannot be limited. Locke believed that a government’s power can be limited.

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Locke believed that everyone was born with the three natural rights life, liberty, and property. Life stands for people wanting to fight to survive, Liberty is for the people and what they wanted, Property is for the people wanting to do anything that appeals to them in order to survive and allows them to own their own things like land, food, supplies etc. i agree with this

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Although, their views on the type of government and the natural rights of its citizens greatly differed, especially regarding the state of nature. The state of nature is an idea used in political philosophy that was used by Enlightenment philosophers. It’s a representation of human nature without society. Locke believed that “Men living according to reason, without a common superior on earth, to judge between them, is properly the state of nature.”

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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 believed that it is people’s inherent right to govern themselves. He “championed the social contract and govern­ment by consent”. (Steven) He even went so far to say that people did not need to be governed. All that government is is a framework by which people protect their natural rights, but it only needs to exist in practice.

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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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John Locke believed in a democracy and expressed that humans have the ability to govern themselves. However, Hobbes believed that humans are selfish and need a single leader(king) that should govern all affairs. Post French Revolution people lived under Hobbes theory, but wanted to become a democracy.

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The Enlightenment: Hobbes vs. Locke Two famous philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, have contributed to modern political science by expressing their views on human nature and the general laws that man had to follow. Both of their views differed in terms of how man should live his life. These views will be shown by comparing both philosophers’ opinions on the nature of man, and the various laws that constituted. Man was naturally evil, selfish, and living in a state of war, according to Hobbes. He believed that “humans were created “bad” by their creator”, and were “condemned to live in a world where bad things happen” (The Enlightenment, 1650-1789, p. 6).

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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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Locke believed that people were born with natural rights that included the right to life, liberty, and property. Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights, so the best kind of government was one with limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Locke said that a government has an obligation to the people it governs, therefore, the people have a right to revolt if the government fails at its obligations. Like many other Enlightenment philosophers, John Locke’s ideas reflected on the checks and balance system as well as the Declaration of Independence. For example, in the Declaration of Independence, it says, “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.”

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Instead, he believes that all humans are born both free and equal, in which individuals in the society are governed by natural law. (330) The ‘sovereign power’ in John Locke’s findings relates to the government, as it subsists to help support and keep the people safe. However, if an individual is seeking the protection of their property, they must pursue an executive power to help keep that property safe. (326) This relationship between the subject and the sovereign can be considered very significant because it overshadows the way in which political societies work

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Natural rights are rights given to each human from birth and according to John Locke these rights include, Liberty, Life, and Property. Locke disagreed with the idea of Divine Right. He claimed that rights never came from the king, but from God. He also argued that the people made the government to only protect those rights, and if one was to give out some of their own freedom, it would have to be to protect the community’s rights. This also meant that if a monarch was to violate these rules, the people have the right to overthrow the monarch.

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When comparing the two different accounts of English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke we must take into consideration a number of things such as the age in which they lived and the time in which they produced their philosophical writings. We will however find out that these two philosophers actually have a couple of things in which agree on even though most of their opinions clash. On one side we have Thomas Hobbes who lived in the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651) who provides a negative framework for his philosophical opinions in his masterpiece Leviathan and who advocates for philosophical absolutism . On the other side we have John Locke, living during the glorious revolution (1688-1689) he presents a positive attitude in his book The Second Treatise of Government and advocates for philosophical and biblical constitutionalism. It is important that we know that the state of nature describes a pre- political society prior to the social contract.

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Gene editing is a technique that enables scientists to replace the section of the original genome of a living organism. It offers a greater precision on changing the sequences of DNA specifically. Some scientists have been looking forward to use human embryos for the experiment in order to understand the early stages of life and the potential to remove the hereditary illness. However, the ethical issues and potential risks associated with gene editing have called for a moratorium until further research is completed. The ethical implication and adequate regulation of gene editing will need further consideration in order to make this technique achievable.

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John Locke discussed natural rights in his work, identifying them as being "life, liberty, and estate (property)", and argued that such fundamental rights could not be surrendered in the social contract. Although Locke thought natural rights originated by divinity since humans were creations of God, his ideas were fundamental in the development of the modern idea of human rights. For the first time the natural rights were not linked to any citizenship nor relied on any law of the state, nor were they destined to one particular ethnic, cultural or religious

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