Thomas Hobbes and John Locke: Two Philosophers Compared

oh hey there it's education time sorry I was getting a little psyched up with some Mastadon going to talk to you today about two very important early modern European philosophers Thomas Hobbs and John Lock now this one goes out to at one Republican 79 who asked uh on Twitter hello I was wondering if I could request a video on Thomas Hobbs versus John lock my test is coming up at the end of this week all right so there you have it so Hobs and lock you've probably already heard about the Divine ride of Kings if

you haven't check out my video lecture on that but you've likely been exposed to jacqu BOS however you say that it's French and he was a proponent of Divine Right absolutism now this isn't going to be about okay this is going to be about something different uh both Hobbs and lock reject the idea of divine right and Hobbs is going to advocate for absolutism like BOS does but it's going to be a philosophical absolutism where John Lock is going to advocate for constitutional government a limited government and he is going to use both philosophical and

biblical justifications for his argument for for constitutionalism so Hobbs and lock are both going to give us two versions of a social contract now keep in mind that rouso wrote a book called the social contract but he's not the first philosopher to address this subject what the social contract essentially is it covers two things first of all what is the origin of government how did people decide to have government and second how much Authority should the state have over the individual and Hobbs and lock are going to sort of agree on the first part but

they're going to disagree on the second part let's start off with Thomas Hobs who wrote a book called Leviathan in 1651 remember that Leviathan um same as macedon's second album which I'm kind of introducing you to little by little in this lecture and in Leviathan Hobbs is defending philosophical absolutism the idea that absolute government is not best because it's mandated by God it's best because well because it's best let Hobs explain to you why now what is a leviathan a leviathan is a sea monster mentioned several times in the Old Testament and it's mentioned in

detail described in very much detail in in the Book of Job specifically in job 41 now let me go ahead and read a little bit to you from job 41 with a little bit of Macedon theme music uh you don't mind can thou draw out Leviathan with a hook or his tongue with a cord will he make many supplications unto thee will he speak soft words unto thee the answer to all those questions is unequivocally no the Leviathan is not going to be caught with a hook and he's not going to beg you for things

and he's not going to make requests wilt thou play with him as with a bird or wil thou bind him for thy maidens no don't try that I wouldn't recommend it lay thine hand upon him remember the battle do no more you may try to cross the Leviathan but you will learn your lesson and if you battle with that Leviathan one time you will not do it again now Hobbs is writing about this Leviathan because this is the sort of ruler that he would like to see the sort of ruler that he thinks is necessary

in order to keep us from destroying each other other hobb's view of the world before government was a state of nature which Hobbs refers to specifically as a state of War a war of all against all those of you who have trouble with the English language and would like to see it translated into Latin here it is Bellum omum Contra omnus a war of all against all but if you could write this on your Euro frq or something like that that would really make an impression Bellum omum Contra ominous and Hobbs believed that before government

life in this state of nature in this state of War all against all that life was solitary poor nasty brutish and short five things solitary poor nasty brutish and short Richie what's that pony doing up there well this was my pony before a janitor erased it at the end of last year rest in peace my pony but this actually comes from an acronym that my students came up with if it helps you great if it doesn't whatever super ponies need back scratches super ponies that's a super pony right there so super ponies need back scratches

solitary poor nasty brutish and [Music] short so the idea here is that we need a ruler who is strong enough that he is beyond challenge that people think I could not possibly mess with that guy because that is the only thing that keeps us from tearing each other apart that this Lev ithan who is so large you can see him looming large over everything larger than the city and you see that his garments his chain mail is made of people and he's so big as to be Beyond Challenge and that will make us behave ourselves

when we otherwise would not and it will keep us from destroying one another and this comes down to hobbs' view of human nature which really isn't that far away from John Calvin's who said that man is totally depraved and incapable of really doing any good unless his heart is quickened by the Holy Spirit and yes that's kind of the inspiration for the Calvin and Hobs cartoon these two philosophers one religious one political that tend to think like each other when it comes to human nature they have a very pessimistic view of Who We Are um

then again we might say oh well yeah I I trust people I generally think that people are good kind of in the vein of the Italian Renaissance humanist but Hobbs asked if you think so much of people and you trust your fellow man so much why do you lock your door and everybody says o yeah think about it how about give me your Social Security number just send me an email TR tom.net tweet it to me at Tom Richie uh you let the whole world see it I mean what do you have to fear by

giving out your private information wait what you you don't trust me good call because really if it weren't for the law and all of that stuff I would be the first person to Slit your throat and drink your blood for breakfast actually I wouldn't drink your blood cuz that would make me a Empire and if I were a vampire I would not be able to drink this but anyway yeah humans can be pretty cruel at times now keep in mind that Hobs is specifically riding against the backdrop of the English Civil War Hobbs saw absolute

government in England break down and lead to this long Civil War at the end of which the king is beheaded we see the end of civil government as we know it and so Hobbs didn't really see any evidence that people can live together without some sort of absolute Authority binding them down so remember that Hobbs doesn't see this as God Wills absolute government but just that absolute government is the only way that we will survive without destroying each other [Music] okay now let's talk for a bit about John Lock's philosophical constitutionalism constitutionalism as we've already

talked about in another lecture is the limitation of government by law and constitutionalism is what eventually won out in England and John Lock was its biggest advocate he outlined his constitutionalist philosophy in his two treatises of government published in 1689 remember that title great F frq fodder and he is writing in defense of constitutionalism and in this John Lock is talking about natural rights which he believe that God gave to Adam in the Book of Genesis so keep in mind that Lo is using a Biblical justification for his argument in addition to logic and so

he believed that God gave adam natural rights and thus gave these natural rights to every human being these natural rights are life liberty and property now remember Pursuit of Happiness this is Jefferson trying to change the wording around a little bit so that he doesn't get caught on turn in.com or whatever uh so he's only partially plagiarizing lock but these natural rights are given to human beings but it's very difficult for us to defend them in the state of nature I can say all I want that I've got a right to be alive I've got

a right to be free I've got a right to the fruits of my labor but in the state of nature somebody can just come take that away from me so people get involved in a social contract in order to preserve what they can of their life liberty and property and it's the government's job to protect these natural rights uh the whole point of government is so that we can enjoy these things to a greater extent than we would if we didn't have government so this government can be limited by law and furthermore if this government

is not preserving the lives the Liberties the properties of their citizens then the citizens have a right of Revolution they have a right to overthrow the government this is why Jefferson is making so much use of lock in the Declaration of Independence this is all about Lock's philosophy that when government has failed to protect natural rights then the people can revert back to the state of nature they may alter or abolish their government as Jefferson says so that they can recreate the government in a way that will better protect the lives Liberties and properties of

the people now keep in mind that John Lock is riding against a different backdrop while Thomas Hobbs was writing against the back drop of the English Civil War John Lock was riding against the backdrop of the Glorious and almost bloodless Revolution comparatively bloodless as far as revolutions are concerned but this was a revolution that didn't see a lot of fighting the king uh just uh was kind of ousted there's uh William III of William and Mary Fame and he's on his horse acting like he's about to go to battle but sorry William there's no battle

oh what was that well then it's graphic organizer time uh if you'd like you can uh download a copy of this graphic organizer from my website www.t tom.net Euro or you can just follow along with us we are going to compare and contrast Hobs and lock in a simple graphic organizer now first of all we're going to make some comparon keep in mind that when AP asks us to compare they're asking for similari so let's talk first about how Hobs and Locker similar first of all the original state of mankind was the state of nature

or the state of War as Hobs would call it and is government established by divine right or by social contract it's established by a social contract so in both of these Hobbs and lock are in agreement now how governments are established they agree well what do we do from then that is where they disagree now we're going to contrast keep in mind that when AP says to contrast they want differences so why government hob says that we have government because this is to protect us from ourselves while lock says that the purpose of government is

to protect our natural rights of life liberty and property they disagree on this point as far as where sovereignty resides where is the ultimate power do people give up their sovereignty when they Institute a government does government rule over them or is government their agent hob says that people give up sovereignty for their own good to an absolute ruler and they cannot take it back when they have created a government they have crossed a Rubicon so to speak while lock says that the people maintain sovereignty that the people create a government to protect their natural

rights and if that government ceases to protect their natural rights in a way that's better than if they were in the state of nature then they have a right to overthrow the government so that's a point of disagreement can a government's power be limited Hobbs says no lock says yes so this makes Hobbs an absolutist and lock a constitutionalist When government is not doing what it's supposed to do do we have a right to overthrow it Hobs who says that sovereignty resides the Monarch says that no there is no revolutionary right whereas John lock says

that if there is a long train of abuses and usurpations if government is not doing as good of a job protecting our natural rights as we could do ourselves then yes we do have a revolutionary right well that about sums it up for Hobs and lock if you like what you heard want to hear more historical goodness then please subscribe to my channel I'll be posting more stuff soon for those of you preparing for the AP European History exam stay tuned for some recommended videos until next time [Music] [Applause] w