Hobbes, Locke essays

Hobbes, Locke essays This comparative text is a bit complex in the assumption that all three essay questions can be properly justified in one large endeavor. I will begin by stating that I found all three philosophers writings challenging and insightful but to a point obscure and confusing. Yet each philosopher shared a distinct view on how the state of nature argument molded society. I will commence with Hobbes, then Locke, and conclude with Rousseau, for he is the most ambiguous of them all. In Leviathan, Hobbes begins by stating that human beings naturally desire the power to live well and that they will never be satisfied with the power they have with out acquiring more power. Hobbes also begins by strongly stating the belief of equality, that every one is created equal. He explicitly points out that all individuals have the same ability to kill one another, and hence be killed. Hobbes believed that the nature of humanity leads people to seek power. He looked on the individual as selfish, concerned with self-preservation and when two people want the same thing they become enemies, thus the creation of war. Hobbes uses three basic causes for war, competition, distrust, and glory. In each of the previous cases, men use violence to gain power. He believed that that with out a common power to unite the people, they would be in war of every man against every man. In a sense, Hobbes states that in order to create order, individuals will have to surrender their rights to the sovereign in order to create a state whereby they can be protected. It is perhaps not necessary for this to occur, but rather a side affect of human nature in which human beings must gather into groups to create a convent of natural laws in which to abide and survive from. In regards to the use of property, Hobbes conception is that property is to be distribute among human beings according to the level and perseverance excerted towards individua ...