Thomas Hobbes and John Locke developed social contract theory to explain the formation of civil societies and governments. [1] Hobbes viewed humans in the state of nature as competitive and distrustful, leading to a state of war, so people consent to a social contract establishing an absolute sovereign to maintain order. [2] Locke believed humans in the state of nature were rational and respected natural rights, but formed governments through social contracts to more impartially protect rights and property. [3] Both philosophers argued people consent to governments to escape the difficulties of the state of nature, but Locke believed people could dissolve contracts if rulers became tyrannical.

1. THOMAS HOBBES AND JOHN LOCKE
Nature of Man
State of Nature
Social Contract Theory

2. John Locke Thomas Hobbes

3. Nature of Man
State of Nature
Social Contract

4. NATURE OF MAN
God makes man naturally free to pursue
life, liberty, health, and property as natural
rights.
Humanity ought not to harm
others in their life, health, liberty,
or possessions and in turn expect
their own rights to respected
A human being is by nature a
social animal

5. NATURE OF MAN
human judgment is distorted by self-interest and
can be easily swayed with rhetoric that is often
neither directed toward the public good nor the
individual's good.
Human beings are
programmed, mechanical objects to pursue
self-interested ends, without regard for
anything other than the avoidance of pain
and the incentive of pleasure
Human beings are
Man is not a social animal; that neither by nature
is, society is impossible without selfish nor rational
the coercive power of a state.

6. STATE OF NATURE
It is the natural condition of . The State of Nature is pre-political, but it is not
mankind, is a state of perfect pre-moral. Persons are assumed to be equal to
and complete liberty to conduct one another in such a state, and therefore
one’s life as one best sees fit, equally capable of discovering and being bound
by the Law of Nature. The Law of Nature, which
free from the interference of
is (on Locke’s view) the basis of all morality, and
others given to us by God, commands that we not harm
others with regards to their “life, health, liberty,
or possessions”

7. STATE OF NATURE
In the State of Nature, men are naturally and
exclusively self-interested, they are more or
less equal to one another, (even the
strongest man can be killed in his sleep),
there are limited resources, and yet there is
no power able to force men to cooperate.
State of Nature can be unbearably brutal.
No long-term or complex cooperation is
possible because the State of Nature can be
aptly described as a state of utter distrust. It
is the state of perpetual and unavoidable
war.

8. SOCIAL CONTRACT

9. WHAT IS A SOCIAL CONTRACT AND
WHY DO WE NEED TO FORM A
CIVIL SOCIETY?”

10. WHAT IS A SOCIAL CONTRACT AND
WHY DO WE NEED TO FORM A
CIVIL SOCIETY?”
We give up our right to ourselves exact
retribution for crimes in return for
impartial justice backed by
overwhelming force. We retain the right
to life and liberty, and gain the right to
just, impartial protection of our
property.
It is the preservation of their wealth,
and preserving their lives, liberty, and
well-being in general.

11. WHAT IS A SOCIAL CONTRACT AND
WHY DO WE NEED TO FORM A
CIVIL SOCIETY?”
Men are naturally self-interested, yet they are
rational, they will choose to submit to the authority of
a Sovereign in order to be able to live in a civil
society, which is conducive to their own interests.
To ensure their escape from the State of
Nature, they must both agree to live together
under common laws, and create
an enforcement mechanism for the social
contract and the laws that constitute it.

12. “WHAT IF THE PEOPLE VIOLATED THE
CONTRACT?”
They must be punished with
accordance on the existing
laws of the civil society

13. “WHAT IF THE RULER VIOLATED THE
CONTRACT?”

14. “WHAT IF THE RULER VIOLATED THE
CONTRACT?”
When the king becomes a tyrant and acts
against the interests of the people, they
have a right, if not an outright obligation,
to resist his authority. The social compact
can be dissolved and the process to
create political society begun anew.
If a ruler seeks absolute power, if he acts both as
judge and participant in disputes, he puts himself
in a state of war with his subjects and we have
the right and the duty to kill such rulers and their
servants.

18. REVOLUTION

19. “WHAT IF THE RULER VIOLATED THE
CONTRACT”
there can happen no breach of covenant
on the part of the sovereign; and
consequently none of his subjects, by any
pretence of forfeiture, can be freed from
his subjection.” The ruler’s will defines
good and evil for his subjects. The King
can do no wrong, because lawful and
unlawful, good and evil, are merely
commands, merely the will of the ruler.
No right to rebel

20. “ABSOLUTE”

21. REFERENCES:
 http://www.iep.utm.edu/hobmoral/
 http://www.iep.utm.edu/locke/#SH2f
 http://jim.com/hobbes.html