Comparing Hobbes And Locke's Second Treatise Of Government

Hobbes’ Leviathan and Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” are two critical works of modern political theory. Both works try to explain the origin and purpose of civil society and government while answering the questions of what is the state of nature and how did society organized itself in the beginning. However, these authors hold opposing views on how man fits into the state of nature, the means by which a government should be formed, and what type of government constitutes people the best. These fundamental differences arise from the authors’ different conceptions about the condition of human nature and the behavior of humans in “the state of nature.” Hobbes’ Leviathan proposes a system of power that answers to an absolute or omnipotent

For Hobbes, the state of nature is equivalent to a state of war. Men place their individual safety above everything else, causing a natural tendency to distrust and fear others. Because of this, man’s primary instinct would be to protect himself, leading Hobbes to claim that man is innately ordered towards the individual. Therefore, in a Hobbesian world, every man fends for himself as “men have no pleasure in keeping company” (Hobbes 88). However, Locke’s description of the state of nature is slightly more complex. Locke claims that, initially, the state of nature is one of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance and preservation. To

Therefore, government is not needed to protect property rights but to keep people in order. He believes that as long as there is the potential for unpunished hostility, the state of nature will grant no reprieve from the never-ending threat to one’s life. He writes that it is the law of nature that commands societies to seek peace, yet in the state of nature, there can be no assurance of peace since all promises can be broken. In the state of nature, “every man is an enemy to every man” and so it is the fear of an omnipotent ruler that is required to enforce stability (Hobbes 87). Thus, to Hobbes, it is only the establishment of an absolute government with unlimited powers that marks the beginning of peace since people will not follow the ideals of justice, equality, etc. if they are left to care for themselves. He claims that “[l]awes of Nature, without the terrour of some Power, to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our naturall Passions, that carry us to Partiality, Pride, Revenge, and the like” (Hobbes 117). Therefore, in order to secure lasting peace, the government must be interminable and men must surrender their natural rights to the in order to create the entity of the sovereign. Thus, a sovereign must be put in place to ensure that individuals follow the laws of nature in order to maintain a cohesive