Thomas Hobbes

            Thomas Hobbes believed that all men were born selfish and cruel. The society was needed to keep them in check and from killing each other. “For the laws of nature, as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and, in sum, doing to others as we would be done to, of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like.” If left alone, men would be at their terrible ways and demean each other. Therefore there must be a government to prevent chaos and discord. They would want their pride and honor above the good of others.

John Locke

            John Locke contributed many of his ideas to the Declaration of Independence. He believed that all men were created equal with the right to life, liberty, and the ownership of property. “When legislators try to gain or give someone else absolute power over the lives, liberty, and property of the people, they abuse the power which the people had put into their hands. It is then the privilege of the people to establish a new legislature to provide for their safety and security.” This is reflected in the way we can impeach our president if he or she abuses their power. The Declaration of Independence writes that we were revolting because Great Britain was not giving us representation and we wanted equality and freedom, as well as various other rights.

Jean Jacques Rousseau 

Jean Jacques Rousseau believes that a perfect government, while it does not exist, would be a democratic government. “Besides, how many conditions that are difficult to unite does such a government presuppose!  First, a very small State, where the people can readily be got together and where each citizen can with ease know all the rest; secondly, great simplicity of manners, to prevent business from multiplying and raising thorny problems; next, a large measure of equality in rank and fortune, without which equality of rights and authority cannot long subsist; lastly, little or no luxury-for luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness;  it sells the country to softness and vanity, and takes away from the State all its citizens, to make them slaves one to another, and one and all to public opinion.” There are many requirements that have to be met before a democratic government can be perfect. People must be equal in riches, power, and possessions, but that is not so in the United States. Here, people are mainly equal, but there are the minute details that make everyone unequal.

Montesquieu

            Montesquieu believed in a check of power. He thought that there should be a separation of powers into three branches as shown in the Constitution. “To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.” This check of power is represented by the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. They are there only to make sure people only do what they can and can not do what they can’t. 

Voltaire

            Voltaire highly believed in equality and rights. He wanted everyone to have freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which is now reflected in the American Bill of Rights. “It is clear that men, in the enjoyment of their natural faculties, are equal: they are equal when they perform animal functions, and when they exercise their understanding.” He explains why there are ranks in the human society by saying how a cook must cook for his master because it is his job for the time being. While when society has changed, the master shall be the cook and make food for the cook who is the new master. The American society heavily emphasis equality because it is what everyone wishes for.

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Works Cited

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Edited by J.C.A. Gaskin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. 1690. Ed. Peter Laslett. London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. The Social Contract. Translated by G. D. H. Cole. Public domain. 1762

De Montesquieu, Baron. The Spirit of the Laws. Rev. Ed. 1. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1900. Print.

Voltaire. Equality. 1924 Translated by H.I. Woolf. Hanover College Department of History. 1995