Anna+and+Alex

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

By Anna Griffith and Alex Pietrangeli

Thomas Hobbes was a political philosopher with a materialistic sort of philosophy who believed that a state needed to be established in order to keep peace and order. Because his view of life was nasty without a state, he accepted a very authoritarian version of the social contract (“Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679”). John Locke, while not only being an Oxford scholar and ideologue for a revolutionary movement, was also seen as one of the greatest philosophers of the late 17 th to early 18th century. His main aim concerning the Enlightenment Age was to determine the limits of human beings. (John Locke 1632-1705) While the two philosophers had many similarities, they still had their differences. A quote taken directly out of the book Hobbes write, titled //The Leviathan //, states, "The universe is corporeal; all that is real is material, and what is not material is not real." Meanwhile, John Locke's philosophy was, “All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.” This quote gives a direct example pertaining to Locke’s studies. It addresses one limit on mankind, the limits he spent a great deal trying to understand and determine. In contrast, the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes was a materialist philosophy, going into depth about the mortality of the soul. He states that humans make their own universe and decide what is important to them. By saying the universe is “corporeal,” Hobbes is saying that it is up to the person to decide what is important and not.

John Locke. 5 August 2009. Oregon State. 5 August 2009.  []  Brainy Quote. 2009. 4 August 2009.  []  Thomas Hobbes. 5 August 2009. Oregon State. 5 August 2009.  [] 