What is Hobbes reading?

4. Based on your research, write an essay explaining which philosophers ideas would be most useful today. Provide evidence to back up your claim.

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were both philosophers during the 1600’s that had different views and opinions on what should be done for society and government.  However, both were influenced by the same historical events despite having different ideas. The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution both contributed to the Enlightenment period.  This period had changed the way many thought about government and society; this included Locke and Hobbes. Only one of these two philosophers’ ideas would suit the ideas related to government in the United States today.

Thomas Hobbes is a philosopher who is known for writing The Leviathan in 1651.  In The Leviathan it is defending the idea of having kings that rule and have absolute power.  A leviathan is a powerful sea creature that destroys anything in its way. Hobbes had chosen this as the title to compare the kings to the sea creatures who have absolute power to make sure that there is order among its people (Thomas Hobbes worksheet).  With his idea, people were not allowed to speak out against the government and voice their opinion (Thomas Hobbes worksheet). This would be going against the king, which would result in them being killed. He believes that people cannot be trusted to govern themselves because there would be no order, which would lead to people doing whatever they please to survive.  Thomas Hobbes also made claims about the social contract. In his words, the social contract is among the people, and not between the people and the king (Thomas Hobbes worksheet). He had also believed that people were born with natural rights but these rights would be taken away by the monarch to be given protection (Hobbes vs. Locke T-chart). Hobbes had also feared that religion would cause a civil war because the church would involve themselves with the king’s government without permission.  Due to this fear he had decided to create a section of government for the church. This department would handle all of the religious affairs of the country (Thomas Hobbes worksheet).

John Locke is a philosopher who sided with the Protestant Parliament and studied science and medicine at Oxford University.  Locke had published the book Two Treatises of Government in 1689.  In that book, Locke had addressed many of the points that Hobbes had brought up in his book.  Such points include the social contract and natural rights (John Locke worksheet). Despite the fact that Locke had addressed the same points as Hobbes, Locke had different claims.  For instance, Locke had believed that the social contract was between the people and the king rather than it just being among the people. For natural rights, he had believed that they could never be taken away or even freely given up.  He also believed that natural rights had limited the power of the king; which was a good thing because it would ensure that the king didn’t have absolute power (John Locke worksheet). According to Locke, the king’s job was the enforce and protect the natural rights of the people.  He had believed that “governing lightly” is the best way to rule a country. To add on to this idea, Locke had preferred a representative government over any other type of government. He wanted the people to have a say; unlike Hobbes who had believed that the king should have absolute power (Hobbes vs. Locke T-chart).     

After viewing the two philosophers ideas, I believe that John Locke’s ideas would be most useful today.  This is due to the fact that, Locke’s ideas match more of the system that we are currently following. Locke has ideas about natural rights being important and not being taken away, people having a say in government with the help of representatives, and not having a government with too much power (John Locke worksheet).  These ideas are used today in the United States and other places. For example, today in the United States we have multiple branches of government and a system of checks and balances. These two things ensure that one part of government doesn’t get too much power; this would provide a government that still enforces laws and protects people's rights, but doesn’t have too much power (which is a major part of John Locke’s ideas) (Congress for kids, checks and balances).  Locke’s ideas had also inspired one of our founding fathers who had written the Declaration of Independence. This founding father who was inspired by Locke’s ideas was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and he had used Locke’s ideas when writing it (John Locke worksheet). Due to this, our country is already based off of Locke’s ideas; which makes it easier and more useful for us today.

All in all, Locke and Hobbes are two philosophers who have very different ideas about what government and society should be like.  However, Locke’s ideas are most similar to the system that we have in place today which causes it to be a better fit and more useful.  Hobbes’ ideas are very different from the ideas that we follow, so if we were to use his ideas we would have to change our whole system.  This would take time and not everyone would agree with the system change. It’s easier to stick with the system that we have now because it works and many people agree with it. This is why Locke’s ideas would be most useful to us today.