Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
The Ideas Of Government Held By Locke And Hobbes - Online Term Paper

The Ideas Of Government Held By Locke And Hobbes

The ideas that Hobbes and Locke set forth in their essays are opposite each other. Hobbes retains the notion that if there is not a power to keep people in their place, they will continually be in war against each other. His Leviathan presents a bleak picture of human beings in the state of nature, where life is nasty, brutish, and short. Locke on the other hand, presented humans in a more rational, tolerant, and cooperative state but agreed with Hobbes upon the origin of the “social contract” (an implicit agreement between everyone in a society to respect legal authority, so as to enable the pursuit of happiness).
Hobbes saw government as a single governing body, made up of power given ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

usefulness and not on grounds of divine right. Hobbes explained that fear of violent death is the principle motive that causes people to create a state. In order to maintain a stable society, people made an unwritten “social contract.” So people chose a leader to rule them, and any attempt to break this contract is punishable by whatever penalty the monarchy may exact in order to protect his subjects from returning to that state of anarchy.
Hobbes’ theory seems to put more at stake. Continual war is inevitable if there is no government. Thus protection of that government is essentials; his rational being that, until we are in a state of war with the government, the government still has something to offer us. Locke on the contrary finds the chances involved in revolution if the rights and property of the majority are not being protected.
Locke believed that people had given up some rights, but the rights that were kept were the natural rights, which included the right to live, ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

The Ideas Of Government Held By Locke And Hobbes. (2007, May 6). Retrieved July 2, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Ideas-Government-Held-Locke-Hobbes/64440

"The Ideas Of Government Held By Locke And Hobbes." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 6 May. 2007. Web. 2 Jul. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Ideas-Government-Held-Locke-Hobbes/64440>

"The Ideas Of Government Held By Locke And Hobbes." Essayworld.com. May 6, 2007. Accessed July 2, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Ideas-Government-Held-Locke-Hobbes/64440.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 5/6/2007 11:51:56 AM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 818
Pages: 3

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier