Hobbes Discussion Questions
1. What significant historical event occurred prior to Thomas Hobbes’ writing of Leviathan? What is the
meaning of the title?
2. Explain what Hobbes meant by the “state of nature” and by the “social contract.”
3. Why did Hobbes believe that the best form of government had a king as its sovereign?
4. How did Hobbes view the church’s relationship to government?
Locke Discussion Questions
1. What was John Locke’s educational and political background? How did his background reflect
Enlightenment ideas?
2. Although Locke in Two Treatises of Government agreed with Hobbes about the necessity of a social
contract in a brutish state of nature, what were his disagreements regarding man’s natural rights and
the operation of the social contract? How did he view the power of the king?
3. What were Locke’s views on property and its relationship to government?
4. Explain Locke’s ideas about representative government. What role did property play in his conception
of voting rights?
Montesquieu Discussion Questions
1. Describe Montesquieu’s family, educational, and political background.
2. In The Spirit of the Laws, how did Montesquieu differ from Hobbes and Locke in his beliefs about the
state of nature? What did he mean by “the state of war” and its relation to “the state of society”?
3. According to Montesquieu, what was the main purpose of government? What did he determine was
the best form of government? Why?
4. How did Montesquieu somewhat misinterpret the exercise of political power in England?
Rousseau Discussion Questions
1. Explain Rousseau’s early life, education, and first successful writing experience.
2. How did Rousseau view man in a “state of nature”? What, according to Rousseau, was the influence
of society on man, particularly the ownership of property? How did he disagree with Hobbes, Locke, and
Montesquieu regarding the idea of the social contract?
3. What was the relationship between the social contract and the sovereign as stated in Rousseau’s
work The Social Contract?
4. Explain Rousseau’s ideas about a direct democracy and political power. How did he view religion’s
relationship to the state?