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Handout B: Comparing and Contrasting Hobbes and Locke

Handout B: Comparing and Contrasting Hobbes and Locke

Instructions: Work with your assigned groups to complete the table and answer the questions below.

(Fillable Chart in PDF)

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) – Leviathan (1660)

What is man’s natural condition?
What are man’s natural rights?
What is the proper role of government?

John Locke (1632–1704) – Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690)

What is man’s natural condition?
What are man’s natural rights?
What is the proper role of government?

Questions

Both of these writers are known as social contract theorists. In which, if either, conception of society do people have more natural rights? More legal rights?
On what points do they have the most in common? On what points do they differ the most?
Which theorist’s ideas do you think had greater influence on the Founding of the United States? Why?
Identify and discuss some especially memorable passages from both authors. How do these readings help you better understand natural rights and legal rights?

Additional Activities

Primary Source: Excerpts from Hobbes’s The Leviathan and from Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government