TWO VIEWS OF GOVERNMENT

THOMAS HOBBES

v.

JOHN LOCKE

EQ

• How do the ideas of the philosophes build on the ideas of the scientists?

• How do the ideas of the philosophes represent a dangerous challenge to the traditional authorities of Europe?

• How do the ideas of the philosophes shape the democracies of the modern world?

THOMAS HOBBES, 1588-1679• WROTE LEVITHAN (1651)

• MAN IS NATURALLY WICKED & FOOLISH

• NEED GOV’T TO KEEP ORDER

• WITHOUT GOV’T MAN IS IN A “STATE OF NATURE”

THOMAS HOBBES• ARGUED THAT STRONG GOV’T

IS ONLY WAY TO PROTECT PEOPLE

• PEOPLE GIVE UP RIGHTS FOR ORDER & PROTECTION

• CALLED “SOCIAL CONTRACT”

THOMAS HOBBES

• BECAUSE OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, HOBBES WOULD SAY THAT BAD GOV’T IS BETTER THAN NO GOV’T

• WHAT BETTER FORM OF GOV’T TO PROVIDE ORDER THAN ABSOLUTISM?

THE LEVITHAN"During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.

"To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues.

"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."

JOHN LOCKE 1632-1704• BELIEVED IN HUMAN

POTENTIAL

• THOUGHT MAN COULD LEARN AND IMPROVE

• THOUGHT MAN COULD TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF– DID NOT NEED ABSOLUTISM

JOHN LOCKE• GOV’T IS CREATED FOR ONE

REASON ALONE: TO PROTECT THE 3 NATURAL RIGHTS– LIFE

– LIBERTY

– PROPERTY

• IF GOV’T FAILS, IT CAN & SHOULD BE OVERTHROWN

JOHN LOCKE• WROTE TWO TREATISES ON

GOVERNMENT (1690)

• LAID OUT IDEA THAT POWER TO RULE COMES FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, NOT FROM DIVINE RIGHT

• THIS IS BASIS OF MODERN DEMOCRACY

LOCKE’S THOUGHTS ON GOV’TAny single man must judge for himself

whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.

SOME OTHER IMPORTANT ENLIGHTENMENT

THINKERS

VOLTAIRE 1694-1778• WAS ARRESTED

FOR SATIRE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

• LIKED THE IDEAS OF LOCKE

• WROTE IN PRAISE OF ENGLISH CUSTOMS

VOLTAIRE 1694-1778

• ADVOCATED FREE SPEECH & FREE RELIGION

• TARGETED CHURCH & ARISTOCRACY

VOLTAIRE 1694-1778• “I DISAPPROVE OF

WHAT YOU SAY, BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT”

• WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?

BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

• LAWYER

• BELIEVED POLITICAL LIBERTY WAS CRUCIAL TO HAVE

• ADMIRED THE BRITISH SYSTEM OF GOV’T

• WROTE ON THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS (1748)

• BELIEVED IN THE SEPARATION OF GOV’T POWER

• “POWER SHOULD BE A CHECK TO POWER”

BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

• BELIEVED IN INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

• BELIEVED MAN WAS NATURALLY GOOD & THAT SOCIETY CORRUPTED HIM

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU• UNLIKE HOBBES,

BELIEVED THAT IN A STATE OF NATURE, PEOPLE LIVED AS FREE & EQUAL INDIVIDUALS

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU• “MAN IS BORN FREE

AND EVERYWHERE IS IN CHAINS”

• STRONG FORCE THE WEAK TO SUBMIT

• BELIEVED THAT THE ONLY GOOD GOV’T WAS A “DIRECT DEMOCRACY”

CESARE BECCARIA

• LAW SHOULD NOT BE VENGENANCE

• NO TORTURE• SPEEDY TRIALS• CRIME SHOULD

FIT PUNISHMENT• NO DEATH

PENALTY

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT• “IF ALL MEN ARE

BORN FREE, HOW IS IT THAT ALL WOMEN ARE BORN SLAVES?”

• WOMEN NEED TO BE EDUCATED

• WOMEN SHOULD BE MORE THAN NURSES