Frederick Douglass Academy
Global Studies
Mr. Murphy
The Enlightenment
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
Two Views of Man in a “State of Nature”
The following is a selection from Thomas Hobbes’ (1588 – 1679) seminal work, The Leviathan. Hobbes published this book in 1651. He had just witnessed England “survive” their Civil War, and for the first time in English history a King, Charles I, (who we remember exhibited many Absolutist tendencies), was executed by an Act of Parliament. Oliver Cromwell soon became the “Lord Protector” of England.
***Hobbes on Mankind, and what they are like in their “Natural State”
“So it is clear what men are like when there is no outside power to keep them all in fear. Such a state of nature becomes a condition of war. In such a war every man struggles with every other man. War does not only mean constant fighting; it also is a period of time during which a willingness to fight is commonly known and accepted. This is also called war.”
“In a state of nature, every man is every other man's enemy. There is no safety or security except one's own strength and trickery. In this state of things, there can be no factories or stores because products are always unsafe. There can be no farming no trading, no large buildings, no arts, no science and no society. Worst of all, there would be continual fear and danger of violent death. The life of man would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
John Locke’s (1632 – 1704) father fought on the Puritan side against Stuart Monarchs, specifically supporting plots against Charles II and James II prior to the Glorious Revolution. His First and Second Treatises on Government (1689 – 90) propose a very different view from Thomas Hobbes, both concerning Man in his Natural State and what type of Monarch is necessary as a result.
***Locke on Mankind, and what they are like in their“Natural State”
“To understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what estate all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of Nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man. A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another, there being nothing more evident than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of Nature...”
“The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions...”
Your commentary on back:(Two Paragraphs) How do Hobbes and Locke differ on both the status of Man in a “State of Nature”, and the type of political system must exist because of how Mankind naturally “is”?