Comparison of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes' Philosophies in Different Areas

Introduction to Thomas Hobbes

“The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, a quote from the book Leviathan , book I, chapter 13, which wrote by an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, known as Thomas Hobbes, He born in 1588, April 5 at Westport, Wiltshire, England and died in 1679, December 4, at Derbyshire. Hobbes, was by nature a deeply peaceful and cautious man. He hated violence at all time. A disposition that had begun at the age of 4 when his own father, a clergyman was disgraced and abandoned his wife and family after he got a fight with another vicar on the steps of his parish church in a village in Wiltshire. From a history of his life, there is not a coincidence to the pessimistic thinking he have.

Introduction to John Locke

Back to history, there are thinkers and scholars such as Voltaire, Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the American revolutionaries. These groups were influenced by the ideas that Locke brings. The man that now was describes is a very intellectual philosopher, John Locke. The man who was born in 1632 at England laid his ideas on the foundation for classical liberalism which would become increasingly prevalent in western countries. Furthermore, this “Father of Liberalism” was successfully drafted 1677 to 1680, one of his most influential works, the Two Treatises of Government argued for radical limits on the authority of the state limiting the function of government to the narrow protection of people's rights to life liberty and estate.

Points of Discussion From Both Philosophers

State of Nature by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

On the point of state of nature by two philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, I identify there are differences on their understanding according to this area of idea.

According to Thomas Hobbes, state of nature is the condition of people before there was any state or civil society. During that time, all humans are born equal and equally share the right to do what is necessary for their survival. The highlight of state of nature is about nature of man , when Hobbes agree that man is equal in mind and body, while seeing man through his pessimistic view , where man are brutish, egoistic and solitary. Through that’s perspective, Hobbes see man by nature is sort of greedy because they will have similar hopes and desires, and they become enemies when they do not get them. This leads to the condition of man in a state of war, whereby man against every man, force and fraud flourish and there is perpetual fear and strife. They will be in the war all the time since they willing to gain or secure or defend something, wherein they only trying to maintain their reputation at the end.

Hence, there are three psychological causes of quarrel which are competition, diffidence and glory. In the context of competition, must be understood that there is no obligation for people to respect others, no morality in the traditional sense of goodness and justice. In addition, there is none orders to create a peaceful society. That is why if man willing to gain something, they compete by using violence to make themselves masters of everybody such as men’s persons, wives, children and cattle and make everyone fear of them. Moving to the second of psychological cause, which is diffidence. In diffidence, they are trying to defend themselves for safety through provocation at times. Diffidence does not mean always to provoke others, but just an effort to secure own territory and gain some interests. Last in the list of causes of quarrel is glory, wherein mostly about power. It leads to the purpose of invade which is for reputation. Inside of glory, what is being explained is how a man want to gain empowerment as well as gain more power and more and more.

While, according to John Locke, state of nature is the condition of people before there was any government. He argue in the state of nature, people born with natural liberty and have rights through a phrase “'Life, Liberty and Property”. Based on optimistic perspective, Locke states that men is positive recognition as creature of god and living together without a common superior on earth with authority to judge between them. Interestingly, Locke believes God created the earth and he gave it in common to all human beings. For Locke, humans have rights. He successfully influence his ideas in America colonies in founding United States. His relevance idea is about government by imagining what life might be like if people were living in a state of nature without laws and governments.

Thus, he argued that in a state of nature, the society is free, equal and rational. He understands man to be capable individuals, able to think rationally and have desire to coexist peacefully. Each of every person possession alienable with rights to “Life, Liberty, Property”. Property is also heading the meaning of estate. He also said that each person also has the right to punish those who do not follow laws and who do not respect the other’s rights. In addition, Locke says that property is really important, which comes before sovereign and the social contract. Locke wants to say that property is natural and has its origin in the state of nature. Property exists before the state, hence the state is created to protect property. That is fundamentally significant claim, and it is part of Locke's liberal outlook on government.

Furthermore, Locke says that the purpose of state is to protect the rights of people in terms of life, liberty and property. For Locke, humans have rights. They have claims to the things they make and the things they have made out of their labour before the state even exist. The state, in fact, is called into existence in a social contract, in order to protect the claims to oneself, and to one's labour and to the fruits of one's labour. For example, Adira and Lukman arrived in a new world. They find an unclaimed area of land. They begin a process of transforming the land to build a farm. According to John Locke, this labour is how Adira and Lukman acquire rights over the land. Property rights over the product produced on the farm is another important addition. It is because Adira and Lukman have the right to decide how the best to use their outcome products. They can consume it or trade it with other people for other goods and services they might need. These insights about the importance of property rights in ensuring a free and prosperous society are as applicable now as they were when John Locke was writing them originally.

Best Type of Government According to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

I also identify there are differences between two intelligent thinkers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke on their thoughts to the idea of best type of government.

Thomas Hobbes believes on absolute monarchy type of government because he said that man desire for power and glory and explicitly state that there is a need for a singular power to rule over the citizen in case of regulation. This is by cause of it can make a man to not break contract or covenant between the subjects and sovereign or subjects to subjects through the social contract. Quoted that, “And Covenants, without the Sword, are but Words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.” (Leviathan, Book II, Chapter 17), which connects to a meaning that Hobbes clearly say that Leviathan as a power that should and can be enforce to all people by a little force or else the contract will lead in vain as people who abandons the contract will have the advantages indivisible. In Hobbes view of the state of nature, individual humans in pursuit of their own self-preservation and their own self-interest will come inevitably into conflict, war, of all against all. The creation of sovereign, the Leviathan, who will establish law is one of the way to escape from this situation. A law that must be obeyed and justice is obedience to this law. People should form a social contract so a monarch can protect them and keep them safe using monarchy system of government. Through monarchy system, the monarch will supervise including the ruler in not to do any excess ruling the society such as violation through law. Law begins only when there is a sovereign, as law is the command of the sovereign. In the context of social contract, there are two condition where sovereign with subjects and subjects with subjects.

Through the condition of sovereign and subjects, probability, there can be three situation which the first one is between the monarch and the rulers and the second one between the rulers and citizens and the third one between the monarch and citizens.

In the first situation, implementation of effective way to prevent the rulers not to be overpower is keep continue to this day which called as limitation of power. Through limitation of power, monarch and rulers will have their own role, scope of job and authority, supposedly rulers should know they cannot be the monarch. Back to Hobbes’s history of life, one of the main reason of the sovereign do not have to divine his absolute power is because he do not want war such as brutal war , English Civil War (1642 - 1651) to happen again. Whilst, in the second situation, which is between the ruler and the citizens, Hobbes believes that citizens should obey any kind of law as long as it does not effects their life and it does not lead them sentenced to death. The ruler is not subject to the law because the ruler who creates the law and apply the law for and to citizens. Moving to the third situation, which is between the monarch and citizens. The interesting part here is, monarch is the only one entity to rule citizens and not subject to the law since it will creates the law.

Through the condition between subjects and subjects, it means within the citizens itself such as Citizen A, Citizen B and Citizen C. Thomas Hobbes once again states about his willing to avoid any war happen within the citizens itself since he experienced such a brutal war, English Civil War (1642- 1651).

While, Locke is contrast and believes the government or even no particular at all more than absolute power at the top of hierarchy. He adds that the king should not hold the absolute power like what Hobbes had said, but acted only to enforce and protect the natural rights of the people. If a sovereign violated the natural rights, the social contract was broken. Hence , natural rights of individuals limited the power of the king and the people had the right to revolt and establish a new government. In conclusion, back to the state of nature, he concluded that man are naturally rational to understand of how to run the society.

Liberty of People According to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

In the area of idea on liberty of people, it is clearly can be differentiate line of thinking between Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

Basically, there are two concepts of liberty, which are positive liberty and negative liberty. The meaning of positive liberty is possession of the capacity to act upon one's free will, while negative liberty means freedom from interference by other people, primarily concerned with freedom from external restraint. Concept of the positive liberty and negative liberty comes from Isaiah Berlin in his 1958 through his essay, which contributes to a revival of interest in political theory in the english speaking world. Proudly, the essay remain as one of the most influential and widely discussed texts in that field. Mostly, it explores about the philosophical nature of freedom the distinction between positive liberty and negative liberty. These two concepts reconnected with those great philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in their thoughts on liberty of people.

According to Thomas Hobbes, he signifies liberty or freedom as “the absence of opposition” or “external impedements” to motion. Through the impedements, a man’s power may be take away as he cannot do what he would, yet it is not a hinder for him to use his own power as his judgement and reason shall dictate to him like what Hobbes say in Leviathan, the right of nature is the liberty each man has to use his own power and preservation of himself, that is to say , oh his own life. Therefore, any consequences of any action he may take, only by his judgement and reason.

Hobbes explicitly differentiate freedom from power. An entity will be said to lack of freedom when the impediments to motion are external, an entity will be said to lack of power or ability when the impediments are internal. It is also stated there is a danger in the liberty of the subjects to challenge the sovereign. For instance, a book on the table cannot move on its own does not mean that it lacks of the freedom to move, yet it lacks the power or ability to move. These thoughts cited Hobbes as philosopher on the formulation of negative liberty, and it proved by how he sees freedom and power.

Contrast to John Locke, he rejected that definition of liberty that Sir Robert Filmer brings, by not mentioning Thomas Hobbes who have the same definition on liberty, who had the same Locke describes freedom as a “two-way” power , which combines two conditional powers we called agents, that is, someone who endowed with a will. This statement shws that his thought is far different than Hobbes that distinguish freedom and power. According to Locke in the state of nature, liberty consists of being free from any superior power in the entire surrounding of life. Basically, people are not under the will or law making authority of others but have only the law of nature for their rule. He asserts that freedom of nature is to be under no other restraint but the law of nature. In a simple way of explanation, this can best be described as if the individuals are willing to do something, then they will have power to do so and if the forbear to do that thing then they have power to forbear it.

Even though there is an obvious differences, there is similarity to both argument in terms of self-preservation where they believe people should have their own rights to do the action they might will to do so. In other way of perception, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke can be different to some circumstances. It is because of pessimistic element that drove Thomas Hobbes believed that people or men are selfish creatures while, John Locke, who is an optimistic person that human-being optimistically perceive towards their own action. And this means that they know how to describe the good and evil decision and merely according to their desires.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the background of anyone would influenced anyone to have some characteristics and way of thinking inside them. Back to both intelligent philosophers, they both have their own history that makes the way they are. For instance, Thomas Hobbes was influenced by the issues of his father and King Charles I, while John Locke was influenced by his experiences along his life such as knowing Lord Ashley, Lord Shaftesbury and many more. We could see how their surrounding in history and current life changes their character and way of thinking until this day. Last but not least, any philosophers normally do not stop to ask as Plato once said “Philosophy begins in wonder”.

References

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4. Michael Green (2014, March 7). Hobbes on Liberty. Retrieved from http://carneades.pomona.edu/2014-SPP/0225-nts.shtml
5. Samuel Rickless (2020).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Locke on Freedom. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-freedom/
6. George H. Smith (2013, Jan 23). Negative and Positive Liberty: Some Historical Reflections. Retrieved from https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/excursions/negative-positive-liberty-some-historical-reflections
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8. https://sites.google.com/site/lockevshobbes1221/home/best-form-of-government