Thomas Hobbes and John Lock, two very important political philosophers, while the general principles of each of the ideologies might very similar the concepts and the workings are very different. In Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes and Locke’s Second Treatise we see examples of the states of nature, social contracts, and societal responsibility. Throughout each of their work each philosopher argues how these concepts and others are crucial to the functioning of a government.
The Second Treatise written by John Locke seems to be filled with arguments against Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, or the Natural Rights of Kings, or how a basic society functions and the basic rules to that. Patriarcha, by Filmer which was published until around 1680’s about twenty years after it was written argued on key points that Locke disputes. Filmer argued that God gave Adam dominion over all things, including other human beings on the planet. “Filmer believed that the state was a family, that the first king was a father, and that submission to patriarchal authority was the key to political obligation.”
Chapter one is a reflection of the previous Treatise and Locke’s political views, it’s his intro into his political philosophy. He creates direct arguments against Filmers work stating that Adam does not have authority over his children or the world by neither by Natural right nor God. Fathers rule over their family jointly with the mother. Adam was only given power over the animals in the world not the people in the world. Locke argues political power is the right to create laws for the preservation of property, and defending the commonwealth all being for the good of the public.
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Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes was written after the English civil war, questions were raised about the legitimacy of nature and the legitimacy of the state of power. Thomas Hobbes states “without a sovereign government life is … “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Hobbes then develops into his philosophy of a social contract, “the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons.” A mutual transferring of rights according to Hobbes, transferring your personal freedoms to a centralized government, especially a monarchy.
Both Lock and Hobbes discuss the state of nature with very much similarity. The state of nature described by both philosophers is a state of total freedom and self preservation. Total freedom comes in the state of nature where there is no sovereign power. Locke’s philosophy is that to which you protect your freedom by any means necessary and work to preserve the freedom of others “and except when it’s a matter of punishing an offender, no-one may take away or damage anything that contributes to the preservation of someone else’s life, liberty, health, limb, or goods.”
Locke did not believe in reckless philosophy of doing whatever you please because there are no laws rather he believed in “Freedom of nature is to be under no other restraint but the law of nature.”, meaning there are still rules to preserve the laws of nature. Hobbes philosophy very much similar to Lockes believed men existed in nature free and had the right to be self governed, their total freedom was the will to do what they so choose without thinking about it, once we think about what we are doing we have lost liberty to what to what we are doing. Hobbes describes the human race to be selfish beings, they all want the same things, we are continually at war with one another. Both philosophers by stating what freedom is give a brief introduction into why it is necessary to form a centralized government.
Both John Lock and Thomas Hobbes agree to a certain extent that giving up certain freedoms when joining a government is necessary to have a peaceful society. Locke states “Though in the state of nature he has an unrestricted right to his possessions, he is far from assured that he will be able to get the use of them, because they are constantly exposed to invasion by others. All men are kings as much as he is, every man is his equal, and most men are not strict observers of fairness and justice; so his hold on the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very insecure. This makes him willing to leave a state in which he is very free, but which is full of fears and continual dangers; and not unreasonably he looks for others with whom he can enter into a society for the mutual preservation of their •lives, •liberties”. Freedom, today we would define it as “the condition or right of being able or allowed to do whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited:” (Cambridge Dict)
Our current government has been shaped by the philosophies of Hobbes and Locke, according to both its the civilians job of that certain society to ensure the sovereign power in rule is doing the correct job. As a citizen of the United States and many other countries you have to give up your total freedom to be protected by the government so which you choose. Locke states that a government needs to be continually scrutinized in order to ensure the protection of your rights. Thomas Hobbes is not far from the ideology of scrutinizing the government, he argued that the government needs to be overthrown if it again not protecting mankind’s rights.
Bibliography
- “FREEDOM: Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” FREEDOM | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/freedom
- “Liberty.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty.
- Lloyd, Sharon A., and Susanne Sreedhar. “Hobbes’s Moral and Political Philosophy.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 30 Apr. 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Sir Robert Filmer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 July 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Filmer#ref218059
