Political Structure & The State of Nature: Contrasting Hobbes and Locke Nearly two-hundred and twenty-five years ago the United States of America chose to fight a Thomas Hobbes government, with the hope of forming a John Locke The ideas of these men lead to theformation of two of the strongest nations in the historyof the world: Great Britain followed by the UnitedStates. Thomas Hobbes viewed the ideal government as anabsolute monarchy, due to the chaos of the state ofnature in contrast, John Locke’s ideal government was ademocracy due to his beliefs of the equality of men. These men have shared a few of the same beliefs, butmainly contrast each other.Thomas Hobbes believed that man by nature is evil.He however, lived in a time of war and famine, which mostdefinetly influenced his views. In the state of nature,Hobbes saw competition,(mainly for material property);diffidence,(for mans own protection); and glory(for onesreputation and honor), as the only predicaments capableof causing quarrels. He saw man’s natural motives powered by emotions resulting from material possessions;this puts the state of nature into a state chaos. Hobbesbelieved that logically, man would look for a way out ofthis chaotic state. A possible solution to this chaoswould be if everyone observed the natural laws of:justice, equity, modesty, and mercy. In contrast, Hobbesstated that it would be a laborious task for man tofollow these laws. Hobbes believed that these laws arecontrary to man’s natural passions’, and man would notwillfully obey them unless it is beneficial to himself. A bond with words alone can not hold a man to keep apromise, therefore, man needs “the terror of some powerto cause the [laws] to be observed,” as stated by Hobbes(CWT III, 36). He felt this terror would be bestrepresented in the structure of an absolute monarchy. Ifa power is present which is not strong enough for a man’ssecurity, man ...
