Locke and Hobbes
Locke and HobbesThe formation of government is one of the central themes for both Hobbes and Locke. Whether or not men naturally form a government, or must form a government, is based on man�s basic nature. According to Hobbes, a government must be formed to preserve life and prevent loss of property. According to Locke, a government arises to protect life and property. Governments are born of inequality and formed to administer equality.
Hobbes goes into a lot of detail concerning man�s interactions with one another including ways in which man can seek to live "together in Peace, and Unity" (page 69). However, Hobbes focuses on the interactions of man seeking the same goal. In any system of limited resources, "Competition of Riches, Honour, Command, or other power enclineth to Contention, Enmity, and War: Because the way of one Competitor, to attaining of his desire, is to kill, subdue, supplant, or repell the other" (page 70).
Hobbes also deals with the qualities which man possess, and how they affect a man�s basic nature. Man who is charismatic leads others to confide in him. Charisma combined with military ability causes men to follow others as leaders. Those who think of themselves as leaders, the "Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdome in matter of government, are disposed to Ambition" (page 72).
According to Hobbes "Nature hath made men so equall, in the faculties of body, and mind; as that though there bee found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind then another; yet when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable" (page 86-87). Furthermore man tend to see himself as wisest in matters, whether or not others may do things better, and that there is no great sign of equal distribution, "than that every man is contended with his share" (page 87).
Hobbes and Locke consider the formation of government from man�s own nature, whether or not government is formed because man is a social animal or if government is formed to preserve society. According to Locke, man must not "think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts" (page 1). "To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state 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" (page 3).
Unlike Hobbes, whose laws of nature have to deal with man�s preserving of his own life, Locke chooses to apply the term to the idea of reason, by saying that if man reasons about the fundamental concerns that government arises to protect life and property, man can come to certain natural conclusions about how they should be protected.
One of Locke�s central themes is the distribution...
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