Imagine a life where there was no form of government and you were free to do whatever you would like. The first word that comes to my mind is chaos. Freedom is easily abused and everyone would have the mindset of taking care of themselves before anyone. Can the human race survive that? In this paper I will discuss two philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and their views on the state of nature. I will argue that John Locke’s view is not realistic, even though it’s ideally what I want for society and show reasons why I agree more with Thomas Hobbes.
I will begin by discussing John Locke’s view on the state of nature first. According to Locke the state of nature is a state of equality in which no on has power over another and everyone …show more content…
The way he sees it is that men are all fundamentally equal, but differ in strengths,(Hobbes Chapter 13, sect. 4). So like this quote mentioned, everyone has the ability to kill if they wanted too. One big part of the reasons why people kill is because they are afraid. Hobbes talks a lot about how fear is the key to survival. If your life was in danger you would do anything to stay alive. He also mentions because of equality that if two men wanted the same thing, war would emerge, (Hobbes Chapter 13, sect. 6). Hobbes’ reason for people wanting to leave the state of nature is fear and reason. Fear makes people constantly having to compete with others and that makes people want to escape the state of nature and reason shows them …show more content…
He goes into more depth about how people really act when they are put into an environment with no government. Locke seems to have the mindset of a perfect world and that everyone will follow the rules because they know in order to make this work they need to follow a natural law. It seems like a good and pleasant life where men mostly keep their obligations and promises, but as we know, not all humans cooperate. Many times people are going to want to do what they want and Hobbes goes more into detail with the reality of the nature. In Hobbes view, it’s the complete opposite. He describes life with no society, short nasty and just awful, because the main priority is staying alive. Like I said before, people are going to do whatever they can for survival and if that means killing the other to get what they want, so be it. They are not going to stop because the law of nature. If no one is looking or watching over them, they are going to do whatever they want. Locke even says that this is how we should behave, not how we would behave like Hobbes says. This is why I agree with Hobbes more. While I would love the state of nature to be the way Locke describes it as, I know that it can not be like that. You cannot control what others want. I know if I was in that situation, which I hope I never am, I would do things I could never imagine doing to protect my own
I will begin by discussing John Locke’s view on the state of nature first. According to Locke the state of nature is a state of equality in which no on has power over another and everyone …show more content…
The way he sees it is that men are all fundamentally equal, but differ in strengths,(Hobbes Chapter 13, sect. 4). So like this quote mentioned, everyone has the ability to kill if they wanted too. One big part of the reasons why people kill is because they are afraid. Hobbes talks a lot about how fear is the key to survival. If your life was in danger you would do anything to stay alive. He also mentions because of equality that if two men wanted the same thing, war would emerge, (Hobbes Chapter 13, sect. 6). Hobbes’ reason for people wanting to leave the state of nature is fear and reason. Fear makes people constantly having to compete with others and that makes people want to escape the state of nature and reason shows them …show more content…
He goes into more depth about how people really act when they are put into an environment with no government. Locke seems to have the mindset of a perfect world and that everyone will follow the rules because they know in order to make this work they need to follow a natural law. It seems like a good and pleasant life where men mostly keep their obligations and promises, but as we know, not all humans cooperate. Many times people are going to want to do what they want and Hobbes goes more into detail with the reality of the nature. In Hobbes view, it’s the complete opposite. He describes life with no society, short nasty and just awful, because the main priority is staying alive. Like I said before, people are going to do whatever they can for survival and if that means killing the other to get what they want, so be it. They are not going to stop because the law of nature. If no one is looking or watching over them, they are going to do whatever they want. Locke even says that this is how we should behave, not how we would behave like Hobbes says. This is why I agree with Hobbes more. While I would love the state of nature to be the way Locke describes it as, I know that it can not be like that. You cannot control what others want. I know if I was in that situation, which I hope I never am, I would do things I could never imagine doing to protect my own