Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jaques Rousseau were three enlightenment thinkers who each drafted different ideas about the state of nature, and political solutions to make society and government more utopia-like. ... Hobbes believed that humans were not driven by a higher purpose, that they were merely physical, and that human life was nasty, short, poor, brutish, and solitary. ... Humans a lot of the time think that their desires are good, when in fact they are quite bad, which Hobbes writes about in Leviathan. ... Unlike Hobbes' dim view of human nature, John Locke believed that a...

• Word Count: 907
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Goodrich's understanding of the difficult problems raised in advancing and defending human liberty. ... Free will, that quality which characterizes the uniqueness of human beings, is evidenced in their acts, behaviors, and choices. ... Professor George Martin addresses the sources and nature of these changes. ... Such views were challenged by those who denied that liberty was a means by which men served ends that were properly human. ... Rousseau argued that man is separated from other living creatures by historical developments rather than human nature "a relativistic fallac...

• Word Count: 2975
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In his best work "Two treatises on government " the philosopher point out that the state of nature does not have the Hobbes' negative sides of conflict and passion's domain. Differently in Locke's state of nature humans do have rationality and they are, according to liberal philosophy, equal and free. ... One of the main point in this book, which is really modern and to some extent anticipates the Marxist doctrine, is that Rousseau thinks that is not human beings to be corrupted but the society itself which consequently affects the human behavior (Held:2006, 44). In Rousseau...

• Word Count: 2282
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Thomas Jefferson spoke of Americans' "unalienable rights" and their natural equality (which according to Locke meant that no one had by nature the right to rule another human without that person's consent). ... Jefferson justified the colony's rebellion in his Declaration of Independence by stating that "when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth... the laws of nature [that] God entitle[s] them..." . ...

• Word Count: 600
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Later John Locke went to Holland because of there was suspected radicalism in the government while there he wrote the Essay Concerning Human Understanding which examines the nature of the Human mind and the processes by which it sees it sees the world. ... Soon men came together under a social contract between every member in order to gain advantages they could not have by themselves in a state of nature. ... There should a known law understood by all people to be the standard of right and wrong and use them to decide controversies between them.In this state of nature there should be a judge w...

• Word Count: 1108
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Plato believed in Classical Conservation, that justice in our society has a "natural order" of things and in his book, The Republic, he goes into detail about how just like human organs, society has a harmony where all individuals play a key role and perform to their abilities. He believes in a just society where he states, "people have neither comparable abilities nor comparable potentialities," which means humans are not equal and that is just the natural order of life and it's how society organizes itself. ... But it is no less true that these kinds of exclusions we...

• Word Count: 821
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is the nature of business", showing that Tom Kay supported Roger Smith's actions and believed in the capitalistic principle as well. ... This is able to occur because the law of the United States bestows upon the corporation the same rights as human beings. Because of this "personhood" treatment, the corporation is entitled to the same liberalist freedoms available to other humans, and the same presumption of non-interference that a liberalist society appropriately affords real people. ...

• Word Count: 949
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However often contradicted through our own human err of bias perception, the works of great thinkers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Locke have provided a pivotal influence on societal values. This philosophy is the groundwork for what we now more wholly understand as laws of nature, in whatever form, not to be exploited or undermined. ... No longer was human comprehension run by the mystical and supernatural once the rational version of comprehension proved much more convincing. ... The philosophical values that carried notions of natural human rights and power were unexplained by the coun...

• Word Count: 3737
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Enlightenment also saw the development of optimism in regards to the abilities of humans to solve their own problems with their government and societies. ... Locke saw humans as good, rational, social, cooperative, and tolerant. It was his belief that, in the state of nature, there was an original equality where all peoples had the right to autonomy and freedom. ... Voltaire, Helvetius, and Bentham were all respected individuals in philosophy in the time and used the optimism of the age to develop new ideas about human behaviour. ...

• Word Count: 1343
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Hobbes book "Leviathan" he argued that humans are not rational and could not properly make decisions for themselves, therefore concluding that man is bad in nature. ... Locke was most recognized for his work towards individual rights and remembered for his quote upon human rights, "Life, Liberty and Property.... If the rights of humans like the ability to speak up and fight for your rights were still allowed under the rein of dictators, citizens all over the world would have been able to express their issues and events like the holocaust and hunger strikes in Russia would not...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Oftentimes the characters in a novel can reveal truths about human nature. ... Terry Fallis manages to reveal the power humans have over their own situations, all under the guise of a political satire. ...

• Word Count: 1540
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This kind of a circular cause-and-effect pattern reveals the true nature of the influence political culture and system have on each other. ... Political culture has mellowed to appreciate individualism, equality and human rights above all but still carries a nationalistic element. ...

• Word Count: 1315
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate