Two British dudes who thought about this

assignment 325+ years ago

but first a little CONTEXT…

SIR FRANCIS BACON

• Father of the Scientific Method (testing hypotheses by gathering measurable evidence through experiment & observation)

• Wrote a book about it in 1620…

• …inspired one William Harvey,who became the first person to fully document the Circulation System

Science Society

Repeated human observation can produce reasonable expectations about future natural events

• Applied scientific principles to the study ofpolitics; wrote a book about it in 1651

from Leviathan:

“The life of man is nasty, brutish and short….Competitors use violence to make themselves mastersof other men’s persons, wives, children and cattle….Without a strong power (absolute monarchy) to keepthem in check, man is in a constant state of war….”

THOMAS HOBBES

• Applied scientific principles to the study ofpolitics; wrote a book about it in 1651

from Leviathan:Monarchs rule not by the consent of God, but by consent of the PEOPLE “The life of man is nasty, brutish and short….Competitors use violence to make themselves masterser Without a strong power (absolute monarchy) to keepthem in check, man is in a constant state of war….”

THOMAS HOBBES

• Context: 1688 – England’s “Glorious Revolution” establishes that the monarch will govern only with Parliament’s consent

• 1690, Locke publishes Two Treatises on Government

• Uses terms like state of nature and natural rights

….”

JOHN LOCKE

“But though men when they enter into societygive up the equality, liberty and executive power they had in the state of nature into the hands of the society, to be so far disposed of by the legislature as the good of the society shall require; yet it being only with an intention to everyone the better to preserve himself his liberty and property.”

….”

JOHN LOCKE

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT:The people give up their natural power to a government, entrusting it to preserve their most important natural rights

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT:The people give up their natural power to a government, entrusting it to preserve their most important natural rights

(life, liberty and property)

(life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness)

…

THOMASJEFFERSON