Lockeandhobbes
5
State of nature / Social contract • What are people like in “nature”?
Transcript of Lockeandhobbes
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State of nature / Social contract
• What are people like in “nature”?
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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
• Founder of the social contract idea
• In a ‘state of nature,’ life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
• Humans cooperate with each other only when it’s in their interest to do so
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Gustave Dore, Destruction of Leviathan (1865)
Leviathan
Sea monster referred to in the Bible
Synonymous today with any large sea monster
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Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) - Chaos can only be prevented by a strong central government (ideally an absolute ruler)
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John Locke (1632-1704)
• We are “blank slates” when we’re born
• Knowledge comes only through experiences
• Influenced Kant, Rousseau, writers of Declaration of Independence etc.