Locke Vs Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were two of the great political theorists of their time. Both created great philosophical texts that help to describe the role of government in man’s life, as well as their views of man’s state of nature. Even though both men do have opposite views on many of their political arguments, the fact that they are able to structure their separate ideologies on the state of man in nature is the bond that connects them. Both men look toward the creation of civil order in order to protect not only the security of the individual, but also the security of the state.
For Hobbes, the state of nature is a very bleak, dreary place. He believed that people in this state were not guided by reason, but instead were guided by our
Out of the various forms of government, he preferred the idea of an absolute monarch to rule over the people. He also concluded that there must be some sovereign authority that was created by the people as part of the social contract that would endowed with the individual powers and the wills of all, and would be authorized to punish anyone who broke the rules. This absolute sovereign, dubbed “Leviathan” was to be so effective because it helped to create a continuous circle that reinforced the social contract. The sovereign operated through fear; the threat of punishment helped to reinforce the mandates that the laws of nature provided, thereby ensuring the continued operation of the social contract that was in place.
It was through this creation of an absolute ruler, that the idea of the “Commonwealth” was created. People who lived under the rule of the sovereign in the commonwealth essentially gave up all of their own personal rights to govern themselves to the sovereign. The “people” in the commonwealth are able to retain their right to self-preservation by endowing the sovereign with all of their other rights. It is through this transfer of power, and entering into the contract with the sovereign in the commonwealth, that Hobbes states how man is able to get out of the state of nature
In order to complete this transition into a civilized society, people had to relinquish their natural rights. These rights included the right to do what they wanted within the bounds of the laws of nature, and the power to punish the crimes committed against natural law. Both rights are given up in order to put oneself under the protection of the executive power of the civil society. In the end the civil society would provide “a law, a judge, and executive working to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good of the people.” Many of his ideals were considered to be very progressive at the time of their creation, and were implemented into the forming of the United States Constitution. Many of the ideas that were put into the creation of the constitution were based on his principles of equality and government working to the advantages of the