Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Their Thinking

Thomas Hobbes was one of the oldest and most hated monarchist and philosopher. He was born on the 5th of April in 1588, in Westport, Wiltshire, England. Thomas Hobbes was mostly or best known for his masterpiece, a book he wrote called “Leviathan”. Hobbes was the first philosopher to come up with the social contract and thought that we needed to respect a king, authorities and do what the ruler tells us to do. He strongly believed that leader, ruler or king shall serve and protect all of their people, which influenced the constitution and that human was evil and had flaws. On the other hand, Jean Jacques Rousseau, who was another philosopher born after Thomas Hobbes on June 28, 1712, Rousseau thought that us human was born good and did not need any type of leader, king or control. Rousseau view was totally the opposite of Thomas Hobbes. He believed that power is in the hands of us people. Rousseau inspired the our country to let the humans be free even though the government, governed the people.

When it comes to the social contract, Thomas Hobbes view was that 'Human life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.' (Leviathan I 13). He believed without any type of control, ruler or king to govern the citizens, the human will just be evil and selfish. He believed that people needed to be civilized because human was bad. From his point of view, we needed someone to rule, and the humans can just follow their demands and rules. Unlike Jean Jacques Rousseau, he belief is that humanity is born being good. He thought differently unlike Hobbes. Jean Jacques Rousseau said that humans are the one who rules and has the power. He said that we were born naturally good and if they turn evil, it is because society made them that way. Rosseau said that in the begging of mankind, there was no type of ruler and human was able to live a peaceful life without any type of ruler. So overall Hobbes basically see us as being born evil and we require some form of government or power to put us in check. And as for Rousseau, humans were born good but when we come together, we do the bad upon ourselves.

I think that without these great philosophers, today’s world would be so different. I understand and see where both philosophers are coming from. Hobbes believed that someone needed to govern the people or things will get out of hand. I agree as well because, without these types of rules, people would commit many crimes and there would be no kind of help like the welfare system at all. The bad will commit crimes, the poor would remain forever poor and there would be no type of success or greatness in this world. I also see where Rousseau is coming from as well. He strongly believed in the people are good and we 1do not need any type of ruler to tell us what to do. He believed that we were born naturally good and the power should be in our hands. This also helps shape our country today because, even though the government does control a lot of things, the citizens still have the power as in natural rights. But I think I would have to side more with Hobbes thinking because things are evolving, and people are just going to become smarter and need some type of control for the world to run peacefully.