John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Essay

prat Locke and doubting Thomas Hobbes were two important philosophers from the seventeenth century. The two were innate(p) nearly 50 years apart Hobbes in 1588 and Locke in 1632 and yet, they each managed to fix a major impact on their quantify and our own. The philosophical viewpoints of Locke and Hobbes atomic number 18, in most(prenominal) cases, in strict opposition of each other. There are sealed points at which the theories of both men collide however, their synonymous teachings are exactly the point at which their theories begin to diverge a accession.John Locke is considered to be the beginning(a) of the British Empiricists, who believed that in order to truly gain knowledge of a certain thing, any man-to-man would first remove to experience something from which they would gain that knowledge. He is thought to be one of the most influential prescience thinkers and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced many other famous philosophers, such as Vo ltaire and Rousseau, as well as the American revolutionaries. The Declaration of Independence clear shows his influence.Locke be the Westminster School in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham, a member of British Parliament. He would later attend Christ church service at the University of Oxford. It was here that Locke became heavily interested in the works of new(a) philosophers, such as Descartes. Locke and other Empiricists rejected the nonion of innate ideas that is, the belief that charitable beings are born with ideas that are otherworldly, or known to us before we enter this life. Locke indulged in a theory which he dubbed tabula rasa, or blank slate in Latin.Following this theory, an individual would be born knowing nothing, and would therefore, only learn and gain knowledge by nutriment and experiencing many things in their everyday life. Thomas Hobbes was raised by his uncle, Francis, as were his three siblings. He attended the Westport Church at age intravenous feeding for education, and then moved to the Malmesbury school, and further, onto a private school kept by a man named Rober Latimer, who was a graduate of Oxford University. Hobbes later attended Hertford College, a constituent college of Oxford University.He became fast friends with the son of William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, with whom he attended a grand tour in 1610. During the tour, Hobbes and Cavendish were exposed to European scientific and critical methods, which were in cable to what Hobbes had been taught in his time at Oxford. Although Hobbes was tight linked to figures such as Francis Bacon, he did not be pass heavily involved in philosophy until after the year 1629. Hobbes lived during a time of great disturbance in Europe. The Thirty Years War lasted from 1618 until 1648.During this time, soldiers were rearing throughout villages, and they acted as they pleased raping women, destroying entire villages and cities, and leaving any brio beings wh o were favored enough to live without shelter or sustenance. In way out of the fact that Hobbes bore witness to these types of situations, his outlook on human nature was understandably somber. Locke and Hobbes were able to agree on one point any men are equal by nature yet, their reasoning for this affirmation varies. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature on the wholeowed men to be selfish.However, in contrast to Hobbes theory that men go away choose violence over peace, Locke insists that human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. In his publication in 1651, Leviathan, Hobbes entitle that while man does voluntarily commit some acts of goodness, man is not, naturally, good. The goal of those voluntary acts, he believed, was essentially to do some good to the individual who performed them. Lockes outlook on human nature was somewhat optimistic. He believed that each individual person has the will and the freedom to think and do as they please, and that p eople are naturally inclined to live harmonize to reason.Therefore, one can ultimately assume that Locke definitely believed in human being existing in harmony with one another. Locke believes that all men are created equal because they are born into a state of freedom that allows them to be equal Hobbes believes that all men are equal because they are all equally despicable. Both Hobbes and Locke believed that there was a sort of social commence between individual citizens and the ruling government. This Leviathan, as Hobbes proposed, would define the rights and duties of each party. Hobbes believed that in one case the contract was instituted, it would be irrevocable.No individual would be able to adjustment their individual rights at a later time, and the government would ultimately have power over them from then on. Locke maxim the agreement as less(prenominal) binding. Because he believed that each individual was born with certain natural rights that no other human being co uld revoke, the contract between the individuals and the state would perpetually be conditional meaning that individuals retained the option to withdraw their hold and preserve those natural rights whenever they saw fit. I believe that Hobbes and Locke both had ideas that were base on their own experiences in their lifetimes.Being a person that has come after both of them, I have had the chance to read and study to understand both viewpoints, and I can see where their opinions would differ, and speculate as to why. Even today, living conditions in certain areas differ greatly, and can have a dramatic effect on a persons view of things. It is even quite possible for two neighbors to have opinions differing as greatly as Hobbes and Lockes. Because the majority of Hobbes life was spent experiencing pain and disturbance inflicted by other humans, he believed other humans to be evil.Locke did not see such wrongdoing in his time rather, he saw a time of peace and prosperity. Therefo re, he would not have fake that humans were naturally evil beings. I think that we are lucky to have lived after so many great thinkers have. Both Hobbes and Locke proposed viewpoints that we are free to combine and contort, if we so choose, and we already have some of the thinking laid out for us by those men. Humans may or may not be naturally good beings we probably will not be able to say for sure until we have left(a) this world. However, we may not have had much to ponder if it were not for John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.