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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This essay examines the philosophies of "contract theorists" Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and discusses how their theories impacted European settlers in the New World. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MThobloc.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
discussion and debate among Europes foremost moral and political philosophers. Among these men were Thomas Hobbes, author of The Leviathan, and John Locke, who wrote his two Treatises on Government.
Both men believed that social organizations were derived from states of nature, but for the most part, both espoused different philosophies. The purpose of this paper is to determine which
theory had a greater impact on Europeans in the New World, and also in the founding of the United States. First of
all, its important to know that both Locke and Hobbes were both social contract and natural law theorists (Locke versus Hobbes). However, that was about the only thing these two
agreed on. So before comparing and contrasting Hobbes and Lockes theories of social organization, it might be helpful to examine what, overall, these theories are. Hobbes, for the most part,
was anchored in the materialistic and physical view of the world (Thomas Hobbes). This means that human beings are physical objects, machines with functions and activities that can be analyzed
as mechanical (Thomas Hobbes). The same is true when it comes to thought; as thought must be understood as part of the operation of the human body (Thomas Hobbes). As
a result, then, human action falls under the same "mechanized" process; specific desires occur in the human body and reveal themselves as discomforts that must be overcome (Thomas Hobbes). As
a result, humans are motivated to act in a way to relieve discomfort and to promote and preserve their well being (Thomas Hobbes).
But the idea of a society of humans running around and acting in their own self interest leads to what Hobbes calls a "state of war" and a quality
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