Hobbes/Locke

John Locke

English philosopher John Locke wrote the "Natural Rights Philosophy," which was part of a larger work entitled "The Second Treatise of Civil Government," and became the foundation for the Declaration of Independence. The "Natural Rights Philosophy" includes the ideas that: All men are born with "natural rights" (to Locke, these rights were life, liberty, and the right to own property); that the government works for the people (not the people for the government); that to be legitimate a government must have the consent of the governed; and that the people have the right to overthrow a government that is not protecting the natural rights of the people.

State of Nature

Hobbes' state of nature is said to be a sad and terrible place. He famously declares that it is "nasty brutish and short." Moreover, it is a place without industry, without culture, without navigation, with property, without any stability or the luxuries of life. Hobbes holds that what without some dominant sovereign to stay the "rapine" and "revenge" of men, the state of nature is intolerable. Hobbes says that in a State of Nature, we would all have rights over each others' bodies because that's an implication of our natural right to self-preservation. The de facto result of this is essentially a moral free-for-all and the badness of that is one of the main reasons we have for giving up some of our rights to the leviathan/state.

Plato

Plato believed that human condition is marked by ignorance and that happiness is attained through justice. Our nature is essentially rational trough reason we can have knowledge of true reality which is separate from the physical world. Plato believed human nature is fundamentally good--but can stray by temptation.

Two Treatise of Government

The Two Treatises of Government is a work of political philosophy published by John Locke. The Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society. Locke begins by describing the state of nature, a picture much more stable than Thomas Hobbes' state of "war of every man against every man," and argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God. From this, he goes on to explain the hypothetical rise of property and civilization, in the process explaining that the only legitimate governments are those which have the consent of the people. Thus, any government that rules without the consent of the people can, in theory, be overthrown.

Aristotle

The social order enacted by humans is different than that of a plant's ecosystem or a herd of cattle. There is a higher level of functioning endowed to humans, and that is reason. Virtuous actions must be pleasurable in themselves, as someone would not be considered virtuous if they didn't perform virtuous deeds. Moral goodness is the result of habit. Therefore, virtue is not natural because what is natural cannot be altered by habit. We are constituted by nature to receive them, but their full development in us is due to habit.

Intro

The state of nature is a concept used in political philosophy by most Enlightenment philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The state of nature is a representation of human existence prior to the existence of society understood in a more contemporary sense. Locke and Hobbes have tried, each influenced by their socio-political background, to expose man as he was before the advent of social existence. In this sense, these authors also attempted to trace how this transition occurred or, in other words, how man has been socialized while leaving behind him the animal state.

State of Nature

The state of nature, according to Locke, is one in which men have no government yet do not violate the rights of others. The state of nature, in relation to any philosopher, is the condition of man without the existence of government. Human beings exist, but have no government, and have not consented to a "social contract". Locke's theory about the state of nature, apart from Hobbe whose view was negative, is that there exists only one rule in nature and that rule is Reason. This "Reason" Locke believed was that we were, in essence, possessions of God. Specifically, things that we would not do because of Reason: no one ought to harm another, no one ought to infringe another's liberty, and no one ought to steal another's possessions.

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes set out his ideas in his work titles "Leviathan". In it he argued that people are naturally cruel, greedy and selfish. If they were not strictly controlled they would fight, rob, and oppress on another. In other words, there is need for order and control. He explains that people enter into a "social contract", an agreement which they gave up the state of nature for an organized society. Hence, it is necessary for an absolute monarchy, which would impose order and impel obedience.

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher, felt that society naturally resembles a State of Nature, and that this State of Nature is a State of War. Hobbes theory of a "social contract" held that man, once evolved from his primitive state, would seek the things that were most beneficial to him. In order to achieve this state Hobbes held that the common man entered into a social contract with the people governing him, in which the common man received benefit and pleasure and the government was to supply a government that would accomplish this objective. However, Hobbes felt that the most proper form of government was an absolute monarch in which the common man ceded his rights for the guarantee of his own benefit.

State of War

With people being free, these people will not always agree and become aggressive in the absence of the state. When someone questions another's freedom, conflict arises and causes a state of war. Anytime someone wants to violate another's liberty or property. Exerting dominance over another If person steal another's property they will be willing to take that person's liberty as well, which justifies self defense