A Comparison Of Hobbes Rousse Essay Research

A Comparison Of Hobbes, Rousse Essay, Research Paper

Hobbes state of war is the basis for his philosophical discourse on human nature. Where Rousseau says that man is compassionate and good to others in his nature, Hobbes argues that man is only out for himself.

When the point comes where two men want the same thing, they become enemies of each other. Since men often want the same things, they will try to take whatever they can get from each other. Therefore, any man s possession is not safe as long as someone else wants it. From this comes the constant state of war of everyone wanting what another possesses. With no government instituted every man is against the other with no median in which to protect anyone. Because everyone is against the other in war, there is no right or wrong, or any basis for these. There is no justice or injustice because these come from laws, and there is no government.

Rousseau would then argue that men come to peace and work together instead of against each other because it is good for them, and wouldn t like to see another man hurt. Hobbes says that man comes to an agreement of peace purely on fear. Man realizes that each person has the ability to kill the other, and therefore wants to be protected; so they declare peace to not kill one another. Whereas Rousseau says that man comes to peace because each cares about the next, Hobbes says that it occurs because it is in the best interest of a person for personal gain.

The difference between Rousseau and Hobbes is the factor of sympathy. Rousseau would argue that man would help another man who was injured because he would feel bad and want to help him. Hobbes would say that the only reason a man would help another if he were to get a reward for the deed. If a man is hurt, then one could possibly become hurt in the same way if he helped him, so why should he?

In the same way, Rousseau would say that if a man s neighbor needed food, he would give it to him because he was compassionate for the man and sympathized with him. Hobbes would say that man would be thinking the question in his head, What will I get in return, and is it worth me doing it? If it is not, then man will not help his neighbor and give food. Even acts of kindness such as charity; Hobbes would say that they are done because they make the individual feel good for doing something else, or it allows for others to look upon that person with esteem. Both the former and the latter are personal benefits.

Rousseau believes that in order for peace and order to be in a society, compassion and natural kindness for others are essential. Man has these natural qualities and therefore is able to live in peace. Hobbes argues that man doesn t care that he is living in peace per se, but simply realizes that it is beneficial to him to live in a way that he can benefit from others. War is harmful to the individual, so it is necessary for government to keep order among people for everyone s individual interest. Therefore, since only self-interest is wanted, the natural state of man is war.

Rousseau claims that there are no new forces in man, just old ones, and old ones that change into new ones. If man changes states, for instance, from the state of nature to a civil state, there isn t a change in forces at work among man, but a change in the old force. It is a redirected force because care has changed from the individual to the whole.

When man chooses to become a society, there is a sovereign leader and the rest of society. The whole civil state can be seen as a body that needs each part to work properly and work together. The body can live without it s ear, but it causes problems when it must cut off one of its parts, or when a part conflicts with another. Therefore, for each individual to live as a part of this body, he must redirect his thinking from being purely of his own needs, to those of the group.

An individual, when in the state of nature, bases his actions on personal instinct. These actions are amorally selfish because he has no other reason to act in any other way, but to better himself. He eventually realizes that he must live together with others because it is most beneficial to him and that coincides with his instincts. But upon entering the civil state, he must worry about acting properly in it. To act properly, he must worry about the rights, needs, problems, and attributes of other individuals in order to sustain the rest of the body.

Since man must now worry about everyone else, that is not natural; only self-interest is a natural instinctual thought. Instinct is then replaced with reason in order to cope with the needs of others as well as his own. Reason must try to take into consideration what actions are good for the whole, not just the immediate positive effects onto man himself. But the advantages to the jump into reason are that his faculties are exercised and developed, his ideas broadened, his feelings are ennobled, (and) his entire soul is elevated . (Rousseau 153). Man becomes smarter through reason as he moves away from his state of nature.

As in the state of nature, there was no right or wrong, but simply beneficial to oneself, or harmful. It made man happy if he did the right thing, and unhappy if he did the wrong. Instinct told him to do the right thing. In the body of a civil society, there is no one action that is good for every