Are people as a whole naturally evil, as Thomas Hobbes argued, or instinctively good-natured, as John Locke contended? Our governments are created based on our human nature.
What many people don't know is that our forefathers had a forefather - a man whose political theories and writings inspired and guided the American revolutionaries, from concept to constitution. His name was John Locke.
How was John Locke able in his Second Treatise of Government to reconcile the idea that all men are by nature created equal with the idea that inequalities of wealth are natural and inevitable? As it turns out, the two ideas are actually very logical and harmonious, as the inequalities of wealth are the end result of the natural state in which individuals were first born.
In "Two Treaties of Government," John Locke wrote that societies that are not self-governing inevitable surpress their citizens' freedoms. These writings are the philosophical basis for the French and American Revolutions.
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were philosophers from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The two men both had very strong views on freedom and how a country should be governed. Their viewpoints are famous for contrasting one another. Hobbes has more of a pessimistic view on freedom while Locke's opinions are more optimistic.
Contrasts the philosophies and views of social scientists John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Describes how Hobbes states that we are born devilish and nasty, while Locke sees humans as innocent and blank minded.
Out of the Enlightenment, two philosophies of government arose: John Locke's view of equal rights and democratic rules and Thomas Hobbes view that totalitarian governments were the best way to run societies.
