Hobbes and Locke: the end of divine right monarchy and a confessional state Flashcards
Key ideas of Thomas Hobbes
in Leviathan 1651
= PPl are prepared to confer all pwr to one man or one political body because ppl are naturally afraid of each other.
principle behind Leviathan is that people are guided by a lust for power or by the fear of what will happen to them as a consequence of their struggle for power.
This model gives them a sense of protection. Willing to give up some liberties. If ppl do not follow the Leviathan = Anarchy. Leviathan can decide on laws
Thomas Hobbes ideas about the monarchy and ppl
The monarchy before the government is always a state of perpetual (never-ending) war = so there is a need for a stronger gov
Ppl= should have individual liberties but only if a strong ruler is placed in charge
What did Hobbes work question?
Divine rights of the king by arguing that the right to rule was not granted by God but through a social contract, unwritten or written
According to Hobbes power was granted by the ppl, and monarchs could therefore be removed if they broke social contract.
John Locke background
Puritan father fought for P during CW.
Philosophy = opposed absolute monarchy in favour of individual rights and liberties
What was john Locke’s ideas about monarchy/gov
Keep legislative, executive and judicial branches of gov separate to protect gov from abusing its power
What was John Locke’s idea about PPl
Believed ppl are born free. No one had divine rights - all equal in the eye of God.
Like Hobbes - believed ppl entered into a social contract but
unlike Hobbes - no gov could interfere with basic human rights. The role of government was to protect the basic rights of life, liberty and property.
If gov went too far and violated the rights of ppl the ppl then have the right to destroy it e.e GR
John Locke’s idea about knowledge?
Father of Empiricism
Name of John Locke’s books
Two treatises of gov 1689 written in context of growing fear of CII and JII
Essay concerning Human understanding 1690
John Locke’s idea of laws of nature
Certain rights and values were inherently set by nature, meaning that a monarch could not be absolutist.
reactions to Locke’s work
Little reaction at the time, and it only became more widely read in the 18th C. = more readers cause of American struggle for independence the 1770s
it was only after what that Locke’s work was published
Glorious Revolution
