HW #6 .. 9 -15 - 10

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were great philosophers at one time, but only ones ideas actually are actually still being used today. Thomas Hobbes philosophy was that all people are evil and that they need to be controlled. And he thought that in order to control them, they needed a government, one to "help" them. See people might agree to a social contract with this philosophy because since everyone is "evil", a government can keep them in check and in turn have a stabilized town. Now the downfall with Hobbes ideas is that by using a government with this sort of manner he will use it to control people and have ownership of their rights. Not only is this wrong but it can and most likely will cause problems, riots, or just chaos in general.

Now the other philosophy that John Locke came up with was based on people being born free and with their OWN NATURAL RIGHTS. That basically means that people are born with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as some property rights. Locke wanted to implement a government so that they, the people, can and will be protected at all times. Like Locke said, "The great and chief end of people putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property and rights. People, when they enter into society give up liberty (rights) of a kind; yet it being only with an intention in everyone the better to preserve his rights: his life, his liberty, and property." So in a nutshell, its a give and take situation, you give us just a little bit of your rights, and we, the government, protect the rights you do have.

If i had to choose which side i agree with most, it would most likely be John Locke. Don't get me wrong though, his theory was not a hundred percent correct but it was a more reasonable philosophy than that of Thomas Hobbes. Where Locke went wrong was how he said we have to give up some rights in order to protect the ones we do have, and my theory is, why not let us keep all of our natural born rights and just protect them. If we let you govern us, then you should do as we want and that's also what the social contract is about. But like i said Locke had the better philosophy and that is why a lot of whats in the constitution is based on philosopher John Locke's ideas.