Two books that I am going to be drawing information from for my paper are Hobbes’ “Leviathan” and Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government.” This essay will be focusing on the differences between Hobbes’ and Locke’s ideas on the state of nature. One of the biggest, and in my opinion most important points that makes Hobbes different from Locke is his belief that the state of nature is equal to the state of war.
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, who lived between 1588 and 1679. He witnessed multiple events throughout his life that later led him to write his book “Leviathan,” in 1651 once the war had ended. Hobbes witnessed the English Civil War (1642-1651), the interregnum period of England starting in 1649, and the hardest of them all; tens of thousands people dying throughout the span of 9 years. In Leviathan, Hobbes firstly talks about the state of nature. He goes into how life would be without the state, simply why people needed a state to be able to find rational ground, and he tries to justify the existence of state by pointing disadvantages of its absence (CITE). He later goes into defining the sovereign of the sate, and tries to explain the sovereign’s power and limits. It is said that Leviathan means “Mortal God,” so by that being said, Hobbes gives too much importance and power to the state – the state is a Mortal God.
John Locke, also a English philosopher, lived between 1632 and 1704. Throughout his time he saw the Glorious Revolution (1688-1689). This revolution was the British people’s attempt of changing the sovereign in the direction that they wanted it to go. This revolution has also been known as the “Bloodless Revolution,” where as in the people changed the monarch without violence. It is said that Locke w...
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...ways be crime that people will not be punished for. There will always be a fear of war among states, and they will always try to dominate over the other, for example the war between U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.
Hobbes says,
“When taking a journey, he armes himself, and seeks to go well accompanied; when he goes to sleep, he locks his dores; when even in his house, he locks his chest..” (Hobbes)
With this Hobbes is trying to say that us humans never really trust in each other, and that we will forever try to secure ourselves from all the different situations we are faced with in life. In conclusion, Hobbes looks at the state of nature in a more pessimistic picture while Locke takes a more optimistic outlook on it. In my opinion, the Hobbesian view on the state of nature seems more realistic and I feel that it is followed more; we do need state regardless of why.