The sovereign operates through fear; the threat of punishment reinforces the mandates of the laws of nature, thus ensuring the continued operation of the social contract... No one would have any "rights" at all in the absence of a moral code applicable to human actions, nor would there be any standard of "just" punishment - Locke explains the state of nature as a state of equality in which no one has power over another, and all are free to do as they please... - Locke then posits that proof of this natural law lies in the fact that, even though a person cannot reasonably be under the power...

• Word Count: 2051
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Hobbes notes that there are three natural causes of conflict among people in the state of nature: distrust of one another, competition for limited resources, and glory (to preserve one's reputation): "So that in the nature of man, we find three principle causes of quarrel. ...

• Word Count: 4512
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He also takes note of the fact that some leaders are much more talented in various aspects of ruling than others due to their own skills and abilities rather than good fortune. ... He mentions people such as King Agathocles, who obtained power through crime and was not revered as a pious figure. ... Public displays of joy and celebration are much more convincing of virtue than of punishment. ...

• Word Count: 1920
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This is consistent with the belief that crimes have to be punished regardless of the personal and public merits of the criminal. "No ordered republic would all the demerits of its citizens to be cancelled out by their merits; but, having prescribed rewards for a good deed and punishments for a bad on and having rewarded someone for doing well, if the same person afterwards does wrong, it punishes him, regardless of any of the good deeds he has done" . ... In consonance with the strict observance of the rule of law, Machiavelli stresses that the administration of justice and punishment must b...

• Word Count: 4508
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: Undergraduate