Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on The Nature of Man in Society and in Government
. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper compares the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes ("Leviathan") and Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("Social Contract") and the governments that would result if each man's vision was realized. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVMnScGv.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
prominent philosophers were Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In Leviathan, Hobbes described man in a "state of nature" while Rousseaus Social Contract built on Hobbess work and continued his thinking,
though Rousseau was much less pessimistic than Hobbes. John Locke is also an important figure in the formulation of the social contract theory, and his thinking aligns closely with the
others. In Hobbess view, mans life is one of relentless struggle. Hobbes lived through the turbulent period of the English Civil War, which obviously affected him deeply (Lloyd, 2002). Seeing
the destruction of the time, he came to believe that any government, no matter how bad, was better than the "miseries, and horrible calamities, that accompany a Civill Warre" (Lloyd,
2002). Having reached that conclusion, Hobbes further posited that since "all but absolute governments are systematically prone to dissolution into civil war, people ought to submit themselves to an absolute
political authority" (Lloyd, 2002). He is in fact advocating a surrender of individual rights to the authority of an absolute ruler in order to avoid civil conflict. For Hobbes, a
"state of nature" is a condition in which man lives without any sort of government. We might at first think this would be ideal, since each person would decide for
himself how to act in every given circumstance; in addition, each person would be "judge, jury and executioner" of any disputes that arise among neighbors (Lloyd, 2002). It also seems
that this state (i.e., people without government) is a good place to start when we begin to evaluate political arrangements (Lloyd, 2002). This state is what Hobbes terms "the condition
of mere nature," which is "a state of perfectly private judgment, in which there is no agency with recognized authority to arbitrate disputes and effective power to enforce its decisions"
...