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Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau

ECON 205W

Summer 2006Prof. Cunningham

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)� Personal Background

� Most Important Writings:

± The Elements of Law (1640)

± De Cive (The Citizen, 1642)± Leviathan (1651)

� Overall Objectives:

± To put moral and political philosophy on a scientific basis

± Contribute to the stability, peace, and welfare of mankind

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Approach� Felt that earlier thinkers (excluding Machiavelli and certain

others) had failed because they attempted to base their

theories of society on mankinds highest aspirations.

�

Created a code of natural law as morally binding anddetermining the purpose of society.

� Separated his notion of natural law from human perfection.

� Develops a psychology of human passions or interests.

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Approach (2)� Believed he had uncovered the basis of 

human behavior and human nature. Used

these as assumptions to build his theory.

� Believes people have competing interests, and

this has implications.

� The State of Nature.

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Social Contract� The social contract is not between the citizens and

the ruling power.

�

It is a contract citizens make with each other toaccept the rule of central authority.

� The minority accepts the majority decision.

� A society so united forms a single body, a

commonwealth, a leviathan.

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Social Contract (2)� The ruler is the absolute authority.

� Parts of the social contract process.

� Validity of the contact.� The contract is binding only if its purpose is

fulfilledi.e., that the citizens are secure.

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The Sovereign and Citizens� Rights of the sovereign:

± Enforcement of Law

±

Legislative power± Judicial power

� Sovereign is not subject to the laws.

�

Citizens retain certain inalienable rights orretained rights

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Entitlement Theory� Distributive justice.

� The guarantee of performance on contracts is the

basis of all justice.� Without respect for (private) property rights,

everyone has a claim on everything, and chaosreigns.

�

Justice is not equal outcomes, but rather equalityof process and equality of opportunity.

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Distributive Justice� In the state of nature, people share a kind of 

equality. Inequality is a product of civil law.

�

Regardless, people perceive themselves asequal, and will enter into contracts willingly

only under equal terms.

� Doctrines of inequality dont work.

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Hobbes Economic Contributions

� Focus on people as they are.

� Predecessor to Theory of Moral Sentiments

(Smith)� Entitlement theory of justice

� Basic of all justice is enforcement of 

property rights� Social contract with retained rights

� Equality opportunity

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John Locke (1632-1704)� Background

� Basic ideas:

± Rational agent model

± Coincidence of self-interest and general interest

� Reacts more to Sir Robert Filmer than to Hobbes.

� Lockes message:

± All government is limited in its powers and exists only by

the consent of the governed.± All people are born free.

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Great Works� Two Treatises on Government (1690)

� A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)

�Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and Raising the Value

of Money (1691)

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Two Treatises on Govt� Begins with the questions:

± What is political power?

± What is the appropriate end and objective of civil

government?� Answers:

± Political power is the right to make laws, enforcing them atpenalty of death.

± Establishment of penalties related to regulating andpreserving property and defending the commonwealthfrom foreign attack, all for the public good.

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The State of Nature� Contrast with Hobbes view.

� The state of nature is a state of perfect freedom andequality.

� The world was never without political or socialstructure. Political and social structure arise naturallywith humankind.

� People living together according to reason,

without a common superior on earth with authorityto judge between them, is properly the state of nature.

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The State of War

� It is the use of force without right.

� In peace, there is no use of force without right.

� Allows that there are inconveniences in the state of 

nature in which people may need to be judges in

their own case. It such situations, the state of nature

may be indistinguishable from the state of war.

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Self-Preservation� Everyone should pursue their own preservation,

but is also obligated to pursue the preservation of the rest of humankind.

� What if these duties conflict?

� Aggression against others if a violation of the lawof nature.

�

A course of conduct that tends toward self-preservation is in accord with nature, which is thelaw of nature.

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Locke on Property� Natural distribution

� Theory of private property rights

� Begins with the assertion that every person owns themselvesand their labor. This is the foundation of all other property.

� Property acquired through just acquisition, earned throughuse of self and labor.

� Means of limiting accumulation is only required if there is lessthan a superabundance.

� Only labor can create property. Transfer does not createproperty.

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Locke on Money� Money arises by mutual consent.

� It is a social institution that arises our of mutualtrust.

� Money arose and hastened the end of the common.� Money encourages people to produce a surplus.

� Money is an ability to accumulate, leading to aninequality of wealth. People accept this because it is

in the common interest.

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The Economic Problem

� Nature is powerless to provide for its own main

intentionthe increase of mankind.

� Nature cannot extend its own limits. (Problem of 

scarcity?)

� People can make increase possible, solving the

economic problem.

� The continuation of the natural state is impossible.Growth is necessary.

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Political Power� Must be limited.

� Majority rule.

�Separation of Powers.

� There is no freedom where there is no law.

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Key Contributions to Economics� Rational agent.

� In the long run, self-interest and general interest coincide.People are basically good, but self-interested.

� Ideal structure for society is to preserve property rights andlet self-interest reign.

� Entitlement theory of distributive justice. Equal treatment andprocess.

� Focus on growth.

� Political power should be limited, but freedom and economicprogress require law.

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Life and Work� Rousseaus life.

� Confessions (1784)

�Emile (1762)

� The Social Contract (1762)

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Rousseaus View of Human Nature� Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of 

Mankind 

� Civilization brought inequality and other evils.

� People have a sense of freedom, a faculty for self-improvement, a natural feeling of compassion and self-love.

� The key social bond has been the development of privateproperty.

± The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground bethoughthimself of saying this is mine, and found people simple enough to

believe him, was the real founder of civil society.

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Human Nature (2)� Private property is the source of all evil.

� Establishment of the institution of private

property lead to the establishment of society,government, and law.

� The only solution is to abandon private

property.

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Rousseaus State of Nature� Before people lived in societies, their activities were largely

dominated by unreflective pursuits of their own individualwelfare.

� The principle concern of people was self-preservation.

� There were no rights or moral relations to be respected.

� Cooperation was impossible.

� In this environment, it is impossible for human character todevelop, and people to rise above their base instincts.

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Rousseaus Social Contract� Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

� The contract liberates people from the rude state of nature.

� Socialistic view of the relationship between the individual and society.

� The contract does not change people or their rights, but rather it offersguarantees.

� It guarantees individualism by prohibiting excessive individualism or

self-interest.

� To Hobbes and Locke, political institutions are a necessary evil; to

Rousseau they are a blessing.

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Social Contract (2)� People empower the state by their contract with the ruler.

� The citizens give the state (and society) complete controlover themselves and their (individual) possessions.

� People give up independent interest by giving up authorityto the state to enforce the collective interest of society.

� If the ruler or laws act other than in the interests of thewhole of society, then the contract becomes void.

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Social Contract (3)� Society, through the social contract,

reshapes (changes) the individual.

� It is not necessary that choices be made by

a vote. Majority rule is not necessary.

Leaders can act in the general interest

without consulting the citizenry.

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