You have been assigned to research Thomas Hobbes or John Locke, two political philosophers of the Enlightenment. Read both of the summaries of their life and ideas on the best form of government on the next two pages. Then choose to write about one of them. Imagine what your chosen philosopher would think or say about the following topics of his time:
Representative democracy
The power of the sovereign and the people
Making laws within a society
Religion’s relationship to government
The state of nature
The social contract
Property laws
Then write an interior monologue (1-page paper from their point of view in 1st person) that illustrates his view about the above. Focusing on what the best form of government is for the philosopher and why.
You may also reference specific biographical and/or historical information or events that you learned about your philosopher during your research. You may even add details that are not explicitly in the reading materials as long as these details are consistent with the characterization and views of your philosopher as well as the historical and cultural environment of the time. You will need to read outside resources about your chosen philosopher to obtain a better idea about their life and beliefs.
Strive to create a strong voice for your philosopher that reflects both his intellectual viewpoints and his personal characteristics and what he viewed as the best form of government for society.
Thomas Hobbes v. John Locke
Thomas Hobbes
Starting in the 1600s, European philosophers began debating the question of who should govern a nation. As the absolute rule of kings weakened, Enlightenment philosophers argued for different forms of democracy.
In 1649 a civil war broke out over who would rule England: Parliament or King Charles I. The war ended with the beheading of the king. Shortly after Charles was executed, an English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), wrote The Leviathan, a defense of the absolute power of kings. The title of the book referred to a leviathan, a mythological whale-like sea monster that devoured whole ships. Hobbes likened the leviathan to government, a powerful state created to impose order.
Hobbes began The Leviathan by describing the state of nature where all individuals were naturally equal. Every person was free to do what he or she needed to do to survive. As a result, everyone suffered from continued fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man [was] solitary, poor, nasty brutish, and short.
In the state of nature, there were no laws or anyone to enforce them. The only way out of this situation, Hobbes said, was for individuals to create some supreme power to impose peace on everyone.
Hobbes borrow a concept from English contract law; an implied agreement. Hobbes asserted that the people agreed among themselves to “lay down” their natural rights of equality and freedom and give absolute power to a sovereign. The sovereign, created by the people, might be a person or a group. The sovereign would make and enforce the laws to secure a peaceful society, making life, liberty, and property possible. Hobbes called this agreement the social contract.
Hobbes believed that a government headed by a king was the best form that the sovereign could take. Placing all power in the hands of a king would mean more resolute and consistent exercise of political authority, Hobbes argued. Placing all power in the hands of a king would mean more resolute and consistent exercise of political authority, Hobbes argued. Hobbes also maintained that the social contract was an agreement only among the people and not between them and their king. Once the people have given absolute power to the king, they had no right to revolt against him.
Hobbes warned against the church meddling with the king’s government. He feared religion could become a source of civil war. Thus, he advised that the church become a department of the king’s government, which closely control all religious affairs. In any conflict between divine and royal law, Hobbes wrote, the individual should obey the king or choose death.
A new age with fresh ideas was emerging: the European Enlightenment. Thinkers of this time, including Hobbes, wanted to improve human conditions on earth rather than concern themselves with religion and the afterlife. These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”: life, liberty, and property.
Enlightenment philosophers John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all developed theories of government in which some or even all the people would govern. These thinkers had a profound effect on the American and French revolutions and the democratic government that they produced.
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