The social contract in ‘Leviathan’ by Thomas Hobbes and ‘Two Treatises of Government’ by John Locke 

Essay aus dem Jahr 2016 im Fachbereich Politik – Grundlagen und Allgemeines, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In this paper, I am going to compare John Locke’s and Thomas Hobbes’ different ideas about the social contract. The social contract is a theory, which should describe the relationship between a government and the individual. Already in the antiquity, Epicure, Lucretius and Cicero were writing about the theory of the social contract. In the age of enlightenment, there were again several people such as Hobbes, Locke or Rousseau writing about the social contract.

Regarding these different theories, I am going to tackle the following questions: How do the social contract theories in “Leviathan” and “Two Treatise of Government” differ? Where are Hobbes’ and Locke’s ideas realized in the present? Where were Hobbes’ and Locke’s ideas realized in history?

I will work out some points in which these two theories differ and take a look where they are realized nowadays, and where they were realized in history.
In Addition, I will provide a short biography for both Hobbes and Locke. This biography is intended to give us a better understanding of the backgrounds of these two political philosophers.