Hobbes and Locke



Hobbes and Locke

Thesis Statement

Although both Hobbes and Locke begin their analysis with a conception of a pre-political society -- a state of nature-- they come to draw differing conclusions as to the appropriate form of government.

Discussion

Younger contemporary of Hobbes - John Locke (1632-1704) in his political writings "Two treatises on the board" (1690) and "Letters on Tolerance" (1685) summed up the "Glorious Revolution" 1688g which laid down the path of evolutionary development of the British political the system. Locke is a parliamentary democracy theorist who developed the principles of the constitutional limitation of absolute power.

Locke, like Hobbes, uses fiction of natural (natural) state, although in a diametrically opposite sense: it's pre-political, not dosotsialnoe state in which people lived in the world, being a kind and intelligent beings (Boonin, 1994). The "natural community" based on the principles of equality and possession of natural rights, which include the right to life, non-interference in the lives of others, freedom of (a person is free from any kind was standing above his power on earth, guided only by the law of nature, t . i.e. mind), and the right of ownership which is a measure of human labor (Zagorin, 2009).

State and power emerge as a logical development of the natural state, eliminating the disadvantages by an impartial court, governmental authority and just laws. People voluntarily agree to form a political community, and establish a state in order to ensure the rights of natural justice and fair. They give up their freedom just as much as is needed to achieve the goal escort liberty and property (Martinich, 1999). Therefore, the power gets as many rights as necessary for the common good, i.e. for the preservation of persons and property of citizens. If you violate these terms of the contract with the state members of civil society has the right to terminate and install the new legislative and executive power.

Locke's personal sympathies on the preferred form of the state belonged to a constitutional monarchy, which was the real prototype of the British government, formed in 1688 after he believed to be the safest for the freedom of the individual representative democracy, i.e., Board with the legislative activity of deputies, the election reporting periodically to the voters (Martinich, 1992).

Locke is credited with developing the theory of separation of powers, under which priority is given to the legislature, representing the majority, thus stated the rule of Parliament. The executive branch should only implement laws passed by Parliament, not imposing their own rules, independent of his will. The judicial power of the executive was dissolved in Locke, in his work did not affect the issue of judicial independence, suggesting perhaps that the traditional independence of the English courts is guaranteed by the strengthening of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty (Malcolm, 2002).

In contrast to the political thought of Hobbes, which were characterized by clearly statist tendencies, Locke, placing in the center of his political and philosophical concepts of identity, rights and freedoms, giving it precedence over state and ...