The Views Of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke And Karl Marx

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Karl Marx were three opposing philosophers during the Enlightenment with their own interpretations on government and people. Hobbes believed society needed an absolute monarchy, “to confer all their power and strength upon one man.” Locke said that human nature had natural rights, and were therefore “not to be under the will or legislative authority of man.” Finally, Marx believed in communism, in which belongings are public. All of the philosophies had their own relation to the social contract, which was introduced by Jean Jacques Rousseau.
To begin, Thomas Hobbes was a pessimist towards human nature, strongly believing that humans were born greedy and hostile. To support his perceptions, Hobbes wrote Leviathan, …show more content…
He was positive towards human nature and believed that humans were born with natural rights. He expressed his beliefs in documents called Two Treaties of Government and The Second Treatise of Civil Government. “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man…” is a quote from The Second Treatise of Civil Government. It is shown in both documents that Locke believed that governments were formed only to maintain and protect natural rights. He disagreed with the idea of an absolute monarchy, but instead said that limited power was more effective. With that being said, it is society’s right to overthrow the government whenever they have evidence to do so. Locke’s idea of a social contract was very different than Hobbes’. According to Locke, life in the state of nature was filled with “peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservation.” Locke strongly believed that because people were naturally moral, in a social contract, no competition or harm would be an issue. He thought that without a government to defend the people against those wanting to take advantage of them, soon fear would take over. This would soon cause individuals to have the desire to protect the natural laws, such as life, liberty and property. Locke said that these are given up for payback, in return for …show more content…
According to Marx, communism was the belief that property belongs to everyone and the government gives society needs only when they are truly necessary. He stood for this philosophy and wrote down his beliefs in his well-known work, The Communist Manifesto. The document stated “the world will be for the common people,” meaning that with a communist society, everyone will be treated equally and fairly. For his social contract, Marx despised capitalism because it thought it only helped a small amount, and the rest were left in