Locke & Hobbes on Political Science

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes represented the beginning of a real political science in the seventeenth-century, and their conceptions of how government developed and what government should and should not do would be refined and extended by Rousseau and others and would eventually become the basis for the constitutional democracy of the United States. Hobbes was the first to try to put moral and political philosophy on a scientific basis, and Locke continued in this vein. The two find some agreement in their writings, but they also approach the issue from different perspectives. While each sees a relationship between human beings and their government in terms of human beings ceding certain powers to government in order to secure certain protections, Hobbes places more emphasis on civic responsibility, on the responsibility citizens owe to their government, while Locke places more emphasis on more emphasis on the degree to which government is limited in its powers because all governmental powers derive from the governed.

Hobbes and Locke both offer the idea of the social contract as the basis of society, and to this end they begin with a consideration of man in a state of nature. The individual is seen as existing in one state in nature and in a different state in society. The act of coming together in society is based on the social contract, something that is viewed somewhat differently by the two writers, though each sees it as the basis of society, as a voluntary agre

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by which each person agrees to hand over to a sovereign the right of governing him or herself, provided that every other member of the prospective society does the same (Copleston, Volume IV 44-45). Thus for Hobbes, the state of war to which human begins are subject can be escaped through the operation of reason, and this route has been provided by nature itself (Copleston, Volume V 34-35). The essence of the Commonwealth that is created is that it is invested in one person so that the multitude are united in the person, whether individual or assembly, to whom the people transfer their rights. For Hobbes, the sovereign is not actually a part of the covenant, but his sovereignty derives from the covenant. Yet, Hobbes was not in agreement with the theory of the divine right of kings, though he was himself a royalist and favored the monarchy as conducive to greater unity: But as far as the origin of sovereignty is concerned, the covenant may establish monarchy, democracy or aristocracy. The main point is not what form of constitution is set up, but wherever sovereignty lies, it must be entire and indivisible (Copleston, Volume V 40-41). For Hobbes, political science means developing the concept of the political community.

Category: Government - L