Hobbes And Locke Essays - Libertarian Theory, Social Philosophy

Hobbes And Locke Hobbes and Locke Outcome 2 . Thomas Hobbes was born in Wiltshire, England in 1588 just prior to the Spanish Armada. Philosophy is defined by Hobbes as the reasoned knowledge of effects from causes, and causes from effects. Hobbes was educated in Oxford where he learnt about the great classics and also of Aristotle, however Hobbes disliked Aristotle's approach that democracy was the best form of government. Hobbes spent many a year on the continent and his disliking for Aristotle's works grew, when he returned to Britain there was a civil war underway so he left the country again and wrote several pieces of literature, these include the, ?De Cive? and ?The Elements of law?. Later on his book the ?Leviathan was published?. Hobbes died in 1679 after becoming one well-known political writer, but he has not been forgotten and his political thought lives on. Hobbes's most famous piece of work the, ?Leviathan? presents life before government was formed this was what Hobbes referred to as the, ?State of nature?. Hobbes believed that every man was naturally equal and due to this war was inevitable because every man was for himself. War would be inevitable as fought for material possession and for basic necessities like water and food. The first of these, ?causes of quarrel- maketh man invade for gain, the second for safety and the third for reputation?. With this continuing state of war and would produce a lifestyle in which there would be no society, industry or trading. As Hobbes states that there would be; ?No knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, contains fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor nasty, brutish and short.? For Hobbes the, ?State of nature? was a way of rationalising how people would behave in their most basic state. Hobbes advanced from what Ren? Decartes stated ?I think , therefore I am.? Hobbes used the individual as a building block from which all his political theories arose. Hobbes formed his theories by way of empirical observation and he believed that the universe was just atoms in notion and therefore could be measured by geometry and mathematics and could be used to explain human behaviour. According to Thomas Hobbes people would willing give up all their rights to everything and anything as long as every individual was willing to do this. Nevertheless basic human nature would not allow this and with no way of controlling it people would soon break it in an attempt to control a greater share of power over one another. Hobbes recognised that in order to ensure the stability and peace in his opinion this could be achieved by means of a Social contract. Hobbes realising that the only way to maintain order among the people would by having an authoritarian government. He gave the government the name of Leviathan which when translated means monster. This meant that in exchange for individual rights the people would have in return peace, security and protection from one another. The people would not want to return to the basic state of nature and therefore would not protest against the government which would have power over their natural liberty. The social contract would at first be set-up by men to establish a commonwealth which in turn would be governed by a sovereign to whom in the interest of self preservation, simple right to govern oneself is abolished. The sovereign may be an individual or a group of individuals who are not part of the social contract. However the citizens themselves are part of the social contract and this means that they will obey the sovereign and obey the rules that the sovereign has enforced. Since the sovereign has all power there would never arise any contract between the subjects and the sovereign to break. To add this once the contract has been established the subjects need to seek the sovereigns permission to break it. As a result of forming this contract nothing that the sovereign does can be seen as unjust and as a result of establishing this contract an artificial man or leviathan is formed. Hobbes

Depiction of Cultural & Political Life in Germany up to 1933 essays

Depiction of Cultural & Political Life in Germany up to 1933 essays The film cabaret shows the extremes of cultural and political life in Germany up to 1933 by the representation of Jews, women, the clubs, goals of life, as well as the representation of the communists, the Nazis, and general Hindenburg suggests that Weimar Germanys hedonism and indulgence by its society led to an acceptance of Nazi Germany. The film cabaret depicts the culture of Germany up to 1933 quite accurately. Its representation of the Jewish was one that they were rich, with power, which in Germany at the time was true, for instance, the writer of the German constitution was Jewish. Women were depicted true to life, having many more rights than what would be expected of pre 1933. Women could smoke in the street, wear whatever clothes they wanted, there were women in parliament, and in the movie Cabaret, an important thing to note is that Sally had control over herself, and could decide for herself about her matters, for example, having an abortion. At the club where Sally works, The Kit Kat Club, there are transvestites, demonstrating an extremist social group. These extremists made people become uneasy, and swayed them to believe that democracy provided too much freedom, that democracy meant decadence. The kit Kat club is a prime example of the immoral behaviour in Weimar Germany where anything and everything, all sorts of nastiness can happen and is allowed under decadence. Prior to 1933 is when German expressionist art became big and quite influential on many other art types. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German expressionist, his paintings are very representational of the state of Weimar Germany. They are highly emotional, and unstable. Kirchner painted scenes of people, and added unnatural colour to experiment with reality because the reality he saw was not one he liked. In Cabaret, the song money shows a loss of value or quality of life. It demonstrates how money, in Germany, equalled pleasure,...