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What is john lockes view on government
What is john lockes view on government
What is john lockes view on government
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Change is only possible when people want change. People called philosophes, well-educated people in the 18th century, explored their personal reasons on how to change the society the lived in. They believed that natural laws were the main key to understanding what we do and why we do it. The key to a better society was more freedom to do what we want. Taking that into consideration, individual freedom is the key to establishing a more effective government, economy, religous peace, and greater gender equality.
The State is the dominant organization in the country, which is headed by the Government and other bodies. Let’s consider word - government from two sides. We will discuss two ideologies which are belonging to Locke and Hobbes. These ideologies have similar sources, but finally have very different views of ideal government. Thomas Hobbes, he is known for his brilliant work Leviathan, where the state, like sea monster, sucked all the rights and freedom of the people, where people have become part of the state mechanism.
The Declaration of Independence states, “--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”. In the article Why Government, it states, “But Locke also believed that governments should protect people’s natural rights.” Both of these quotes show that the purpose for creating government, is so that the protection of the natural rights of the people is ensured. Also, the idea that these fair powers are just what Men (human beings) are receiving and what they should receive from the creation of governments. Both of these quotes combine with each other, because of the pinpointed idea of how the government was created in order to benefit to the natural rights of the people, and to protect these
Absolutism is a form of government ruled by one person whose authority is not restricted by law or governing bodies. Arising in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, absolutism gained popularity quickly. Many countries and territories in Western Europe adopted the form of government because it “was very practical [and] developed state bureaucracies and standing armies to make its claims work.” Under an absolute rule, the voices of people go unheard and are disregarded. Although absolutism is inhumane, it clearly was an effective and efficient way to rule a territory or country.
Every day we have come up with new concepts and beliefs. We each have different perceptions on life, love, and how we act around eachother. Thomas Hobbes was a fascinating scholar. He had a lengthy life filled with troubles and triumphs. Thomas was a man of science, politics, journalism, and mathematics.
Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588 in Wiltshire, England. He graduated from Oxford University at the age of 19. Hobbes visited Galileo, an Italian astronomer and adopted the methods of the new physics. In 1640, Hobbes fled to Paris when English Civil war broke out. He joined the coterie about Mersenne and was invited to produced one of the sets.
Hobbes’ philosophy can be found within the novel in many points of the story. He believed that the best kind of government was one in which society is organized under one authority, “Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no justice.” In this society all individuals give up some rights for the sake of protection. There is no doctrine of separation of powers in Hobbes’ discussion. Although Hobbes philosophy about human nature is logical and compatible with human rationale, his political theories involving leadership; though sensible in part are illogical.
In addition to new articles, one can also find many of Hobbes and Locke’s principles to many different songs from throughout time. One song that exhibits some of the principles of Thomas Hobbes is “Where is the Love?” by Black Eyed Peas (youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc). This song has to do with a person who is looking at the world today with disgust. This person sees all of the things wrong with the world and wants to know why people act the way that they do.
I enjoyed reading about the different political philosophers, in chapter six. One of the political philosophers that I related to was Thomas Hobbes. “Hobbes was one of the major political philosophers to describe the relationship between individuals and the state” (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & O’Grady, 2012, p. 53). There are many people in the world that like to be rebellious or state that they hate rule and regulations. Some individuals think rules are unnecessary or too restrictive.
Thomas Hobbes, one of the greatest 17th century English philosophers, is in several instances hastily and vehemently grouped into the category of ‘defender and advocate of despotism’ by many. Often regarded as a flagbearer of illiberal thinking and absolutism, few see Hobbes for the claims he subtly, nonetheless, effectively promotes; claims that antithetically contain some of the building blocks of classical and modern liberalism. Though Hobbes, through his main work, Leviathan, does promote certain strands of thought that have illiberal elements—like an opposition to democracy, unlimited power of a sovereign, and restriction of freedoms like that of owning private property—he also promotes a multitude of concepts, that in the era of the 17th
Aristotle thought the best form of government was a polity or constitutional government; however, a polity was non-existent in Aristotle’s time. Correspondingly, Locke
Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau have become known as three of the most prominent political theorists in the world today. Their philosophies and innovative thinking is known worldwide and it has influenced the creation of numerous new governments. All three thinkers agree on the idea of a social contract but their opinions differ on how the social contract is established and implemented within each society. These philosophers state, that in order for the social contract to be successful people need to give up certain freedoms in order to secure fundamental protections from the state, henceforth the state then has certain responsibilities to their citizens. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau all believe that before men were governed we all lived in a state of nature.
The modern state Christopher Pierson focuses on a normative illustration of the modern state – how it should be. The following discussion tries to summarize the essence of three features. (Monopoly) control of the means of violence Thomas Hobbes came up with his idea of the ‘Common Power’ – the Great Leviathan – owning all the means of violence and ruling over the people. Engels talks about power as ‘arisen out of society but placing itself above it’, meaning that the people give all their power to a higher institution and accepting its rule over them. Weber, in his attempt to define the state, mentions ‘monopoly…of physical force’ claimed by a human community.
Thomas Hobbes proposed that the ideal government should be an absolute monarchy as a direct result of experiencing the English Civil War, in which there was internal conflict between the parliamentarians and the royalists. Hobbes made this claim under the assumption that an absolute monarchy would produce consistent policies, reduce conflicts and lower the risk of civil wars due to the singular nature of this ruling system. On another hand, John Locke counters this proposal with the view that absolute monarchies are not legitimate as they are inconsistent with the state of nature. These two diametrically opposed views stem from Hobbes’ and Locke’s different understandings of human nature, namely with regard to power relationships, punishment, and equality in the state of nature. Hobbes’ belief that human beings are selfish and appetitive is antithetical with Locke’s contention that human beings are intrinsically moral even in the state of nature, which results in Locke’s strong disagreement with Hobbes’ proposed absolute monarchy.
The first interesting discussion about the idea of the decision from citizens to accept the rules of the law can be found in Platon and Socrates thoughts, but Thomas Hobbes it is seen as the philosopher who firstly analyzed the modern Social Contract perspective. Hobbes´ theory generally it is divided in two sections: the human behavior or motivation and his social contract theory, burn from the idea of state of nature, which means in his own words “the liberty that each man has to make his own decisions about how to use his own power for the preservation of his own nature—i.e. his own life—and consequently the liberty· of doing anything that he thinks is the aptest”. At the same time, Hobbes built the theory of Subjectivism to explain how humans are self-interested, as we pursue our individual best interest, so our motivation is based on the desire to improve our situation, and generally satisfy our own, individually subjective desires as possible. In addition, Hobbes argues that we are rational. In his idea, we have the capacity to identify our desires as efficiently and maximally as possible, but we do not evaluate our outputs.
