Philosophers: Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, & Montesquieu

Philosophers:Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, & Montesquieu

JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)• Argued that people are born free,

equal and independent.• Possessed natural rights to life,

liberty, and property that no government could take away. = unalienable rights

• Social Contract- an agreement among the people in a society . They give up part of their freedom to a government in exchange for protection of their rights.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)•Believe that people

would be “solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short” without government.

•Believed in the necessity of rules. ▫Basketball game w/o

rules•Government can make it

possible for people to live together in peace.

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)• Argued that the people alone

had the right to determine how they should be governed.

BARRON de MONTESQUIEU(1689-1755)

• Developed the idea about dividing the branches of government into different part to balance each other so no one part can become too strong or threaten individual rights.

• Modern day checks and balances.

• Important aspect our constitution