Similarities Between Locke And Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke both played a major part in philosophy during the 17th century. Their ideas set the groundwork for two of the most well-known political systems today. Absolutism, which was based off of the ideas of Hobbes was a political system in which all state/political authority and economic control rested in the hands of a king or queen. In this type of government, the sovereign had complete control of an entire empire and they were not accountable to anybody but God. The ethical belief of absolutism was that certain standards were established against what moral questions could be judged and there was a fine line between right in wrong no matter what the situation was. Locke had very different ideas that established the political system of constitutionalism. Unlike absolutism, constitutionalism established a government where instead of the rulers having total control, their power was limited by a system of laws that they had to obey. Since constitutionalism did not grant all power to the ruler, it allowed the people to have some say in what went on in the government. Locke provided an explanation of his ideas in chapters two and seven of his Two Treaties of Government. These writings by
No one had greater power or privileges over each other. Since God created everyone equally it was important for people to protect each other. The only exception was if someone committed a crime that threatened the safety of another person’s freedoms, possessions, or life. Since there were no superiors in a constitutionalist government, everyone had the right to enforce punishments as long as they didn’t exceed the degree of the crime. With its emphasis on freedom, equality and governing based on reason, this chapter is considered one the most important in Locke’s Two Treaties of