Philosophers Essay

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Philosopher’s Essay Thomas Hobbes- Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588 and died on December 4, 1679. He was born in Malmesburg, Wiltshire, England, but spent some time living in Paris. Hobbes’ idea of a social contract was absolute power; a single ruler would take control and keep society together. Leviathan was the book Hobbes wrote that reflected social contract. “No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” This quote from Thomas Hobbes is saying that if we didn’t have any of these things the world would chaos. Thomas Hobbes’ form of government was that he wanted one single ruler and to have sovereign power. John Locke- On August 29, 1632, John Locke was born in Warington, England. He lived in Oxford and died on October 28, 1704. Locke’s idea of a social contract was to have everyone be the same. One book Locke wrote that talked about social contract was Second Treatise of Civil Government. "Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided." This quote is saying that all of mankind and people build off of those motives. Locke’s best form of government is to have everyone be treated equally. Jean Jacques Rousseau- Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. Rousseau moved around a lot but settled in Paris in 1742. His idea of a social contract was to have a society. The Social Contract was one book Jacques wrote. “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” I think this quote from his book is saying that even though a man is free on the outside... ... middle of paper ... ... rights. The only thing in common with them was that they both studied the Social Contract. The Americans were writing the Constitution in 1787. As they were writing the Constitution, they were influenced my Montesquieu’s ideas. They divided the government into three separate branches. Montesquieu’s book, The Spirit of Laws, was useful to the Americans during their struggle with England. His ideas were that he wanted to prevent tyranny, the rule of one man. Voltaire’s philosophy was based on two ideas, empiricism and religious tolerance. Diderot believed that rationalism could lead mankind to happiness. The subjects they wrote about got then into trouble with the church. Voltaire got in trouble because he thought that people should practice any religion they would like to. The same thing happened with Diderot when he was trying to teach atheism to people.

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