What Is John Locke's Argument Against Absolutism

John Locke was born in 1632 and also in England. Locke stated opposite viewpoint with Thomas Hobbes about the

On August 29 1632 John Locke was born in a town named Wrington and lived in a small Somerset village. His mother died when John was at a very young age. His father was a country lawyer and died a couple years after his mother. He went to Westminster in1646 and then Oxford in 1652. In 1666 John started practicing medicine on Lord Ashley. Ashley and Locke became known to become good friends. In 1668 Locke was elected to be in the Royal Society. The Royal Society was for improving natural knowledge. John did a lot of amazing things in his life time and he accomplished a lot and the one thing that influenced John the most was most likely to be that his parents died at a very young age and that usually has a great effect on children that can later lead into adult hood.

First, Hobbes says that nature is chaos. There are no rules, and the only means of protection are the strengths of each individual. There is no trust among anyone, and each individual only cares about his or herself. Hobbes develops the right of nature, or self-preservation, out of these circumstances. Each individual has a right to think of self-preservation in a world where no one can be trusted. One might think that this wouldn’t fix the problem of the natural chaos. However, Hobbes explains that the focus on self-preservation will be so powerful that individuals will make covenants that will be adhered to because they preserve everyone and hence oneself. This is in accordance with Hobbes’ concept of the laws of nature. He explains the laws of nature to be: seek peace, forfeit rights, and keep covenants. Humans pursuing self-preservation would realize that by seeking peace and forfeiting rights such as taking what one wanted from others as one saw fit self-preservation is easier and more achievable. This also requires the formation of governments to enforce the covenants made. Otherwise, there would be no way to know for certain that the covenants would be respected and upheld. With the formation of government come concepts such as justice. Hobbes bases his definition of justice on the very thing that created the government: covenants, and the keeping of those valid or

He was born on October 30, 1935. He was born in Braintree, that is now Quincy, Massachusetts. At age 16 John had received a scholarship to the school where he got his education called, Harvard University. This is where he received his undergraduate degree and his masters. At age 20, John studied law in the office of John Putnam’s, a prominent lawyer. Despite of his father’s wish for John to enter into the ministry.

Connecticut at a young age, yet, he did not have a formal education. His parents were William and

Born on August 29,1632, in Wrington, Somerset, United Kingdom, Locke received an outstanding education due to his father. His father, John Locke, served as captain during the English Civil War and was

John Locke was born in Wrington, England on August 29, 1632. His father was a lawyer and served as a military man during the English civil war. Due to his father’s connections

Thomas Hobbes was an enlightened thinker who lived in the 17th century and through the upheaval that was the English Civil War. While observing the Civil War, Hobbes concluded that people are “naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish” (Ellis 183). Hobbes argued that a strict government was the only way to control people because, without it, they would fight, steal, and oppress each other. He said the only way to keep the people at bay was to have them obey strict laws. His favored government was an absolute monarchy because it “could impose order and compel obedience” (Ellis 183). In an absolute monarchy, the citizens give up all of their rights in order to be protected by their leader.

John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, into a middle class family during late Renaissance England. Locke started his studies at Christ Church in Oxford. He then went into medical studies and received a medical license, which he practiced under Anthony Cooper. They became friends, and when Cooper became Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke was able to hold minor government jobs and became involved in politics. Shaftesbury steered Locke towards the views of a government whose law was fair to all, and all were under the law.

Jean Domat and John Locke have to strikingly different ideas on government. Domat stands next to the idea of absolutism where the people have no power. Locke believes in Constitutionalism which supports a limited government. Both men take different stands on political authority and the relationship between citizen and state. Domat believed in absolutism.

Thomas Hobbes was born in Malmesbury, UK in year 1588. Having been born into wealth, Hobbes was formally educated, his studies included Malmesbury school and Hertford College, Oxford. Up until Hobbes time, political theory had very little change since Aristotle.

It is interesting to note that Hobbes emphasizes “transgression of the law” rather than sovereign prerogative. This runs counter to most individual’s understandings of the Sovereign as a despot, ruling according to his present whim rather than an established system of laws. Hobbes appears to place more weight on adherence to clearly promulgated laws than on the “omnipotent will” of the sovereign. (Potential Argument for Legal positivism)

Thomas Hobbes’ belief was morality arose out of a state of nature that operates outside of your own being. According to the Leviathan, Hobbes’ beliefs entailed a state of nature in which all human beings remain in a constant state of war, where there exists no peace, no justice or injustice, simply force and fraud(Hobbes, Chapter XIII). Everyone is equal since in the natural state everything is a free for all; we each have equal vulnerability and no one has true ownership of anything, therefore everything is free; we are all equal leading to endless war. All that does exist in a natural state is desire, predominantly one for power. According to Hobbes, power is the most natural and desired out of all natural things since power leads to one’s ability to satisfy his ever changing desires. Desires are endless and infinite; they lead to the persistence of war in nature. Power satisfies one’s need for war since the more power one has, the more desires of his that he can meet. A common inclination of humanity is for more power since it is the strongest and most infinite desire; we are left always wanting more than what we have. Power enables a person to swap and obtain things that meet new desires as they arise. For a prime example, Hobbes lived during the English Civil War where the King and royalists fought against the Parliament in a struggle for power. King Charles believed he had divine power, from God, to rule England and therefore had the power to meet

Thomas Hobbes believed that the government should essentially limit itself to the protection of property and persons. Hobbes thought that power derived from the office, not from the people. Things like virtue, social equality, and welfare were not important. To protect themselves and their government Hobbes believed that it was imperative, natural and rational for people to give up some liberty in order to gain security of self-preservation. This is called the Social Contract. The concept of the Social Contract Theory is that, in the beginning, man lived in the state of nature where life was, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (page 619). In this state every

Thomas Hobbes born in 1588, was an English political theorist who believed in Monarchy. Hobbes felt that humans, by nature were inherently selfish beings. During the English Civil war, he expressed the need for an absolute ruler. Like how a man has control over his household. To Hobbes, “without an absolute ruler people would kill each other” (Lawrence Smith Lecture). Due to humans being inherently selfish, they would risk the commonwealth of the community for themselves. This would likely cause complications in society and the social disorder. Hobbes conveyed that, “laws make people behave as civilized people” and without them, people