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Hobbes Vs Rousseau

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Throughout history, many people have had very different ideas about how governments should be run. Of those many people, four had very important ideas about government. Those four people were Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Montesquieu believed that laws were necessary but varied for each area for their own conditions; Rousseau believed in self directed law and freedom through giving themselves to others; Hobbes also believed that laws were necessary but that mankind could not thrive if they lived in a world of war; and John Locke expounded that laws should only be created with the consent of the people and that a man truly can’t sign away his life. These influential philosophers …show more content…

This meant that laws were necessary, but not that we all had to abide by the same ones. In his document The Spirit of the Laws he wrote about his ideas on government. He stated that there were laws based human reason and what each area needed based on their own circumstances. The laws where human reason is applied in each nation should be only for their circumstances and needs. He continued on to talk about political liberty. He believed political liberty can only happen when there is not abuse of power, but every man with power tends to abuse it. Judicial, legislative, and executive powers must be separate for liberty as well. Though Montesquieu believed political liberty was ideal, he did not discriminate against other forms of …show more content…

He made this evident in The Leviathan. In this document, Hobbes wrote about how men were more equal than they realized, although from this equality came the same longing for attaining our goals. However, when two people long the same thing, it can lead to war. When there is war, Hobbes claims, there is no place for productive labor, thus leading to Earth losing culture. There is no society, no arts, no account of time, no more exports over sea. Although, Hobbes says the worst part of war is the continuous fear and the danger of violent death. He believes war ruins mankind. In Two Treatises on Government, John Locke stated that societal rules and laws should be created by the consent of the people through a trusted legislature. No laws should be permitted if the people do not agree to it. In this work John Locke also proclaimed that one cannot obtain someone else’s power unless the power is given or forfeited, such as through death. He viewed slavery as a war due to it not being consensual. No man can truly sign his own life

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