Name
Block
Mr. Lee
Date
Why do We Need Society? Selections from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651)
Read the passages below. On the space provided, summarize the points the author is
establishing.
1. Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as that, though there be
found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when
all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one
man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.
For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by
secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself.
…
From this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our ends. And therefore if
any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become
enemies; and in the way to their end (which is principally their own conservation, and sometimes
their delectation only) endeavour to destroy or subdue one another. And from hence it comes to
pass that where an invader hath no more to fear than another man's single power, if one plant,
sow, build, or possess a convenient seat, others may probably be expected to come prepared
with forces united to dispossess and deprive him, not only of the fruit of his labour, but also of his
life or liberty. And the invader again is in the like danger of another.
2. And from this diffidence of one another, there is no way for any man to secure himself so
reasonable as anticipation; that is, by force, or wiles, to master the persons of all men he can so
long till he see no other power great enough to endanger him: and this is no more than his own
conservation requireth, and is generally allowed.
…
Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in
awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against
every man.
…
In [the condition of war] there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and
consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be
imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as
require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters;
no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of
man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
3. To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be
unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is
no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two
cardinal virtues. Justice and injustice are none of the faculties neither of the body nor mind. If they
were, they might be in a man that were alone in the world, as well as his senses and passions.
They are qualities that relate to men in society, not in solitude. It is consequent also to the same
condition that there be no propriety, no dominion, no mine and thine distinct; but only that to be
every man's that he can get, and for so long as he can keep it.
4. The final cause, end, or design of men (who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others) in
the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in Commonwealths,
is the foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby; that is to say, of
getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as
hath been shown, to the natural passions of men when there is no visible power to keep them in
awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants…for the laws of
nature, as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and, in sum, doing to others as we would be done to,
of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to
our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like. And covenants,
without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all. Therefore…if there be
no power erected, or not great enough for our security, every man will and may lawfully rely on
his own strength and art for caution against all other men.
…
But as men, for the attaining of peace and conservation of themselves thereby, have made an
artificial man, which we call a Commonwealth; so also have they made artificial chains, called civil
laws, which they themselves, by mutual covenants, have fastened at one end to the lips of that
man, or assembly, to whom they have given the sovereign power, and at the other to their own
ears. These bonds, in their own nature but weak, may nevertheless be made to hold, by the
danger, though not by the difficulty, of breaking them.
Name
Block
Mr. Lee
Date
Why do We Need Society? Selections from John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government (1690)
Read the passages below. On the space provided, summarize the points the author is
establishing.
1. To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state
all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose
of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without
asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
…
A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more
than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and
rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties,
should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection…
2. But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state
have an uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to
destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than
its bare preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges
every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being
all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or
possessions… Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station wilfully,
so by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as
he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender,
take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb,
or goods of another.
…
And thus, in the state of nature, one man comes by a power over another; but yet no absolute or
arbitrary power, to use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to the passionate
heats, or boundless extravagancy of his own will; but only to retribute to him, so far as calm
reason and conscience dictate, what is proportionate to his transgression, which is so much as
may serve for reparation and restraint: for these two are the only reasons, why one man may
lawfully do harm to another, which is that we call punishment. In transgressing the law of nature,
the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity,
which is that measure God has set to the actions of men, for their mutual security; and so he
becomes dangerous to mankind, the tye, which is to secure them from injury and violence, being
slighted and broken by him.
3. Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put
out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The
only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil
society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable,
safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a
greater security against any, that are not of it.
…
If man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person
and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his
freedom? why will he give up this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and controul of any
other power? To which it is obvious to answer, that though in the state of nature he hath such a
right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others:
for all being kings as much as he, every man his equal, and the greater part no strict observers of
equity and justice, the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very
unsecure. This makes him willing to quit a condition, which, however free, is full of fears and
continual dangers: and it is not without reason, that he seeks out, and is willing to join in society
with others, who are already united, or have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their
lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property.
…
The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves
under government, is the preservation of their property.
4. To [the preservation of their property] in the state of nature there are many things wanting.
First, There wants an established, settled, known law, received and allowed by common consent
to be the standard of right and wrong, and the common measure to decide all controversies
between them: for though the law of nature be plain and intelligible to all rational creatures; yet
men being biassed by their interest, as well as ignorant for want of study of it, are not apt to allow
of it as a law binding to them in the application of it to their particular cases.
Secondly, In the state of nature there wants a known and indifferent judge, with authority to
determine all differences according to the established law: for every one in that state being both
judge and executioner of the law of nature, men being partial to themselves, passion and revenge
is very apt to carry them too far, and with too much heat, in their own cases; as well as
negligence, and unconcernedness, to make them too remiss in other men's.
Thirdly, In the state of nature there often wants power to back and support the sentence when
right, and to give it due execution, They who by any injustice offended, will seldom fail, where
they are able, by force to make good their injustice; such resistance many times makes the
punishment dangerous, and frequently destructive, to those who attempt it.
Thus mankind, notwithstanding all the privileges of the state of nature, being but in an ill
condition, while they remain in it, are quickly driven into society.