Hobbes Vs Aristotle

Aristotle and Thomas Hobbes were two of the most influential philosophers of all time. Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher who was a student of Plato in the 300 B.C. Thomas Hobbes was an English Philosopher in the 16th century who focused mostly on morality and politics. While both of these philosophers studied many other areas of education, they are both famous for their own theories of virtue. Aristotle’s beliefs of virtue revolve around “teleology”, the highest good and how one achieves that. Hobbes believes in the social contract and how the power of the state has influence over individual rights. In this paper I will look deeply into the views of each philosopher and compare and contrast their views with each other. I will also look
Aristotle tries to find out what the highest good is, and he comes up with three main criteria to find it. The first criterion is it must be pursued for its own sake and not for the sake of another good. Secondly, all other goods must be pursued for the sake of the highest good. Lastly, once its obtained, no other goods are desired or pursued. After much thinking and looking through the three main criteria, Aristotle finds that the “highest good” must be happiness. He believes that every voluntary action is done for the sake of happiness, it either contributes to our happiness or it is part of our happiness and that is what will lead us to living a rational
He believes that in a social contract, individuals must have consented, either openly or silently to surrender our natural rights and submit to the authority of the ruler or the sovereign. In order to fully understand the social contract we must first look at Hobbes’s belief of the natural condition. The natural condition is “life in the jungle”, without law, rules, luxuries, or anything of the modern world. Hobbes believes we must avoid this state of nature at all cost and he says, “life in the Natural Condition is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Natural law is a general rule, which promotes the preservation of the lives of the people who obey it. In Hobbe’s theory there are natural rights and natural laws that people have, natural rights are a liberty or freedom to do that which promotes our life and advances our interest. Natural laws are rules, found our by a person which binds us or obligates us to do that which preserves our lives and preserves our interests. The first natural law states that you must seek peace whenever possible, but if that fails use what you have to do to survive. The second law says that one should be willing to give up their own natural rights for others, as much as we would want others to lay down their rights over us. By following these rules we will be able to achieve self-preservation but only if we “lay