Thinkers+of+P.F.D

==Thomas Hobbes == Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher known for his 1659 book //Leviathan//, was born in Wiltshire England on April 5, 1588. He studied and wrote about many subjects, but mainly worked with politics. The other areas he studied were history, geometry, physics, theology, ethics, philosophy, and political science. He is also one of the founders of materialism: the idea that the only thing that actually exists is matter, which is actually the opposite of metaphysical nihilism (the idea that there is no way to discern existence from nonexistence).

In [|Leviathan], he outlined his beliefs of the foundation of “states” and “legitimate governments” based on what he calls //social contract theories.// He wrote //Leviathan// during the English Civil War; and of which much of the context of the book is about the true nature of people. Starting with a basic understanding of human beings and their passions, Hobbes hypothesizes what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the //State of Nature//, in which case each person would basically have a right to everything in the world. This would of course lead to much conflict, a battle of “all against all”, a king of the hill type game if you will. Hobbes describes the State of Nature by saying " A dissolute, condition of master less men, without subjection to laws and a coercive power to tie their hands from rapine and revenge" According to Hobbes, the escape for this civil war is that men will rise up and come to a “social contract” and establish a civil society. Society is a population beneath a “sovereign authority”, to which all individuals in that society surrender their natural rights for the simple need of “protection”. He says that any abuses of power by this authority are to be accepted as the price of peace. But, he also states that in severe cases of abuse, rebellion is to be expected amongst the people. In particular, the government is too abusive when they have control of not only civil, military, and judicial powers, but religious as well.

Hobbes saw that in the state of nature a person has a natural right to protect their own liberty or safety, he wrote that this idea is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." He became convinced that methods used by mathematicians and scientists, geometry in particular, have the greatest promises for any type of advances in human knowledge Hobbes said that "for the laws of nature (as justice, equilty, modesty, and, in sum, doing to others as we would be done to) of themselves, without the terror of some power, to cause them to be observed are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge and the like."...meaning?

For More Information on Thomas Hobbes [|Click Here] .

Some students made a movie concerning Locke, Hobbes and their ideas [|click here to see video]

 This is a drawing by the same person who did Calvin and Hobbes, Get it?

John Locke


John Locke was an English Philosopher born in a small village in Wrington on August 29th of 1632 and died on October 28th, 1704. He attended Westminister school in 1652. His ideas had enormous influence on the development of epistemology and political philosophy, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, classical republicans, and contributors to liberal theory. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. Before he died on October 28, 1704, Locke also theorized that people were born without innate ideas and thought, but instead that we could only obtain this knowledge through our personal experience.  This was the idea that the mind was in a "blank state".The "blank state" means that you as a person are not born with knowledge but gain it over time as time goes on.Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin for modern conceptions of identity and "the self", figuring prominently in the later works of philosophers such as David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first philosopher to define the self through a continuity of "consciousness". Before he died on October 28, 1704, Locke also theorized that people were born without innate ideas and thought, but instead that we could only obtain this knowledge through our personal experience. 

Locke is often classified as the first of the gr eat English empiricists. The importance of his goals was to determine the limits of human understanding.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote://We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness//, he was citing the work of John Locke and his beliefs of natural rights.

A Comparison

 * **Natural Law**- **John Locke** || **Natural Law- Thomas Hobbes** ||
 * * John Locke believed that humans have no innate sense of truth. He believed that we are born a "blank slate", claiming that we cannot create our own ideas.
 * He made a distinction between simple and complex ideas, and determined that humans cannot create simple ideas, they are gained from experience. Only once we have a store of simple ideas can we combine them to make complex ideas.
 * Locke said that truth could not be determined without rationalization. His ideas are contradictory to transcendentalists who believed truth is innate.
 * State of Nature- John Locke**
 * John Locke believed that the state of Nature is a state of equality, where no man has more than another. Each individual is responsible for their own actions and possessions, while no one has the right to destroy himself or another.
 * He also believed that where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to ensure the stable comfortable enjoyment of their lives.


 * Social Contract Theory- John Locke**
 * John Locke was determined to distinguish the legitimate functions of the government from the illegitimate functions. He believed that a civil government must not be insituted by force. In order for a government to be successful, it must be established with full **consent** of the governed. By giving their consent, the governed willingly give up rights to be ruled by a higher power.
 * In accordance with this philosophy, if at any point the government was abusing the power or taking advantage of the governed, a full revolt from the people should be expected. || * Thomas Hobbes believed that as humans we are rational in the sense that we know how to care for ourselves, but we know not how to care for others.
 * He seemed to have little trust in humanity, and he believed that we cannot run a government with moral laws or reason.


 * State of Nature-Thomas Hobbes**
 * Thomas Hobbes believed that a society is based on fear, and that each individual is looking out solely for themselves
 * He believes that in order to conduct ourselves in a community, all power should be taken from the people, and the laws should be dictated by a higher power.

More contrasting of Hobbes and Locke, [|see this]
 * Social Contract Theory- Thomas Hobbes**
 * Thomas Hobbes believed that we could not function as a society based on moral standards.
 * He believed that in order to function as a society, we needed a sovereign to create laws for us and dictate how the people live.
 * He stated that the laws the sovereign created need not have been morally or ethically based. The problem with this system of government is: they had absolutely no control in the society they were living in.
 * His reasoning for creating such a government was fear alone, and in order to prevent people from corrupting the society, he thought it better to submit to the dictation of a sovereign. ||

Here's another video about John Locke [|click here to watch video]