Thomas Hobbes Absolute Government

All three philosophers had intuitive and differential ideas in the way government should be run, while some ideas would benefit the community as a whole, others would destroy it and cause chaos. For example, Thomas Hobbes, as expressed in Leviathan, believed an absolute monarchy was the best and only way to govern a country. He believed that this government was the only one that could maintain peace. In Leviathan Hobbes argues that absolute monarchy is the only right form of government and believed that any form of ordered government is preferable to civil war. He advocated all members of society to submit to one absolute, central authority for the sake of maintaining the common peace. In a social contract, he wanted everyone to give up
Hobbes’ ideas of the commonwealth are predicated upon his views of human nature and the state of mankind without government. While his ideas were well reasoned there were still many problems with his arguments. The idea of everyone agreeing to the social contract of giving up their freedom is absurd. Hobbes places a huge amount of faith in the all-powerful sovereign of his making several assumptions that the ruler would not treat the people unfairly, go mad with power and or even make all the right decisions. As we see in history most king’s do go mad with power and the idea that a ruler could be a fair absolute monarch and treat the people right is asking too much of someone and the people who agree to it. Lastly, his sovereigns’ rights conflict with other ideas he has expressed. Because of the troublesome nature of mankind and the miserable condition of the state of nature and the limited likelihood that men will even agree to the laws of nature, Hobbes believes that the creation of a commonwealth is both logical and necessary. Hobbes’ ideas would destroy the government if as long as the one ruler has all the power, it is unreasonable to think a society would work under these conditions for a long
Locke claims that men are naturally free and equal; he uses this claim when justifying and understanding legitimate political concerns and government with the social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. According to Locke, political power is the natural power of each man collectively given up into the hands of a designated body. He believes that setting up a government isn’t very important because people have a social and moral obligation to revolt against or replace governments that forget they are only there for the people’s government. If the government is not benefiting all people, then it is not doing its job and should be replaced. Locke expresses great ideas and through his social contract, he explains how everyone has natural God given rights as human beings and that any government made should protect those natural rights and benefits the people the government was made for. For Locke, the moral order of natural law is permanent and self-perpetuating. Locke believes that all knowledge comes exclusively through experience and that we as human beings have the right to experience all the things on the planet