The Beliefs Of John Locke And Thomas Hobbes

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also appeared in 1690, the Two Treatises of Government; there he argues that the function of the state is to protect the natural rights of its citizens, primarily to protect the right to property. Though he challenged Thomas Hobbes on the nature of primitive society --for Hobbes it was "nasty, brutish, and short," while for Locke it was more rational, tolerant, and cooperative he agreed with him on the origin of the social contract, an implicit agreement between everyone in a society to respect a legal authority, so as to enable the pursuit of happiness. Locke believed that people had given up some rights. The rights that were kept were the natural rights, which included the right to live, the right to enjoy liberty, and especially the right to own property.
Locke did not believe that God had chosen a group or family of people to rule countries. He rejected the "Divine Right," which many kings and queens used to justify their right to rule. Instead, he argued that governments should ...

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