State of nature / Social contract

• What are people like in “nature”?

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Founder of the social contract idea

• In a ‘state of nature,’ life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”

• Humans cooperate with each other only when it’s in their interest to do so

Gustave Dore, Destruction of Leviathan (1865)

Leviathan

Sea monster referred to in the Bible

Synonymous today with any large sea monster

Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) - Chaos can only be prevented by a strong central government (ideally an absolute ruler)

John Locke (1632-1704)

• We are “blank slates” when we’re born

• Knowledge comes only through experiences

• Influenced Kant, Rousseau, writers of Declaration of Independence etc.