IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU

1. The idea of liberty figures importantly in the works of Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau . discuss what each understands liberty to mean and what significance liberty holds for their respective political theories. Please use only these two books as a reference and cite it well. 10 pages also one page intro one page clear reference. must be type-written in 12 point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins You are expected to use proper citation when quoting, paraphrasing or referencing the text Don’t disappoint me !

Running Head: IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROSSEAU
Idea of Liberty according to Hobbes and Rousseau
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1IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
Introduction
Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes both were great political
philosophers. They both had common assumptions regarding the society which according
to them is the result of the rational creation of man and which resulted in that moment
before the societal perspectives until that phase arrived which witnessed the creation of
the latter part of the Universe. Hobbes and Rousseau referred this moment as the “state of
nature”. Therefore the concept of the “state of nature” indicates as that particular moment
before which any particular civil society which was prior to the creation of the state of the
political entity was created. This phase indicates that moment in which man survived in
the face of the fullness of the surroundings around him. The nature of man however
according to Hobbes and Rousseau was the point of divergence in the society. The
element of distance between Hobbes and Rousseau was regarding the assumption they
had on the nature regarding the humans who will surround the Universe.
The philosophy regarding the state of nature has in its own initial character that
appeared in the context of the mythological atmosphere which gives a greater explanation
of the Universe of the recent time. The conclusions and the precepts, however, regarding
the nature of the Universe will depart from the deductive exercise and the purely
imaginative form of the philosophical assumption of the nature of man, as there is no
scope of the empirical form of the state’s demarcation. The empirical state of
demarcation is that place where however there prevails a deductive belief of the existence
of man. The most vibrant point in this respect is the theory of the state acceding to
Hobbes and Rousseau is the similarity that they have sighted between the state of nature

2IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
and the fall analysis by Adam and Eve in the context of the evolution of the Genesis. The
main assumption in this respect is that a certain nature in the context of a particular event
brought in the state of the natural being can be found in most of the philosophical
theories, just in the way as it was an important aspect of the narrative of the original sin
as mentioned in the biblical analysis of liberty. The philosophers like Hobbes and
Rousseau have based their philosophical thoughts mostly on the premise of the creation
of the state along with the creation of the civil society in totality while enquiring into the
different motives, duties and the consequences of this individual based relationship
between the people and the state that has got a specific and a particular structure.
The concept of Liberty has emerged from the core philosophical thoughts of
Hobbes and Rousseau that rests on the basic premise of the different facets of freedom
that is referred to as the positive and the negative aspect of freedom. The difference lies
in the fact that the negative aspect of freedom is the state where there is no existence of
coercion, where there is no presence of the third party who is allotted with the duty of
exercising its power which mostly refers to the activities conducted based on an
individual’s will power. The positive aspect of freedom however refers to the state to the
increase and the adherence to the existing power structure in which the individual tries to
be a master of his own life or the path that he follows. The two concepts of liberty or
freedom have been formulated by Berlin declaration with the purpose to demonstrate that
freedom acts as the most abstract element for representing the conflicting aspects of the
existent society. For Hobbes and Rousseau, liberty plays a very important role in the
aspect which determines the specific type of human nature in specific and that of the

3IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
society in general. Therefore there is a clear analysis of these two concepts is necessary in
understanding the entire process of the formulation of these two theories.
Liberty in the Leviathan concept of Hobbes
A philosopher and a mathematician, Thomas Hobbes was one of the leading
proponents of the contemporary form of politics. The first idealization concept in his
career was that of the political theory and the defense in support of the absolutism in his
political work in his earl career. The concept of Leviathan as propounded by Hobbes and
has resulted in the more elaborated notion of the form of human nature that was framed in
a holistic manner and in a very anarchical and was present in a more chaotic form.
According to Hobbes political thought every natural man is endowed with the basic
premise of the negative aspect of freedom. This was however evident in the basic form
where there was no legitimized form of any entr11998y made in order to result in the
coercion and for the exertion of a different degree of influence over the actions of man
along with the basic guide element that will guide himself. Similarly, if man assumes
himself to be free, they will be considered as equal and will result in a situation where
there will be no presence of any hierarchy level.
This assumption leads to the basic analysis of Hobbes that a condition is present
which is similar to what was mentioned by Hobbes in the context of the rising scenarios o
the eternal conflict of man. Hobbes stated that in this situation if the men who are lying in
equal strata in today is society, guided by their own will power then at some point this
individual will power will result in the eternal mode of their conflicts. For Hobbes, the
negative aspect of the freedom escalates into the growing levels of conflict, is not

4IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
restricted for just a very few moment but for most of the time in any person’s life.
According to Hobbes it is the eternal rule of the environment to result into the state of
war out of any negative freedom that is brought about by them because of the most
potential form of conflicts that will ever arise.
The concept of freedom that as preached by Hobbes has been critically analyzed
by Wiker. Wiker demonstrated in the context of Hobbesian concept of freedom the
sovereignty that lies within the internal desires as sought by man. Wiker has illustrated
the Hobbesian notion of freedom within the following lines:
“A man is totally free from all the internal desires made by him
And from the internal contradictions in the respect of that man’s
Individual wishes.”
Wiker (1998)
Hobbes has however made a clear mention of the walls in the life of humans that
will result in a clear separation and at the same time which will be associated with the
concept of “consciousness” that does no longer exist in today’s world. As a person sooner
or later realizes this fact and once these barriers seem to disappear from one’s life then
the thoughts and the desires will get a space to ram around in the open environment. At
this phase of time, according to Hobbes at this point of time man will not be able to
distinguish between the right or the wrong properly, or between the light and darkness or
between the good or the evil incident of life.

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However, these distinctions gradually ceased to contain the true or the real
meanings of life or they totally changed from their existing form of the meaning. For
Hobbes the meaning and the definitions of the good and bad was very simple; good was
anything that is desired by the humans and the bad is something that comes on the way of
man to fulfill his desires made by him. If a man can think in this way and achieve such a
similar perspective in life then the man is tend to be in his most natural condition of life.
It is from this analysis of liberty that Hobbes demonstrates the negative aspect of
freedom that according to man has existed in its most natural freedom in an absolute
degree which was started in the form of the theorizing principle of Hobbes in the course
of the emergence of the concept of state for man. The fact that stems out from this fact is
that state that is borne out of itself from that party which tends to have got rejected. In
this condition man will ultimately leave his present state of nature for having given up the
individual part that lies in the ambit of one’s freedom that will be submitted to form one’s
absolute entity which will be legitimately more hierarchical and at the same time capable
enough to monopolize for itself against the act of the violence inflicted on men. The
ultimate goal of man is “peace”. Hobbes has defined peace or the ultimate goal of man in
the following manner:
“A person whose acts can act as a great multitude by the various reciprocal covenants
That is formed with one another and has been instituted by man so that he can use this
Strength and all the available resources in that particular manner where man will
Consider it as the most appropriate tool in order to ensure peace in his most common

6IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
Pursuit for the individual Defense of wellbeing”.
Hobbes (1602)
This approach or the basic assumption of liberty is possessed by the natural men
in this universe .Therefore for a long time Hobbes was unable to bring any common
wellbeing ort the common sense of purpose which ultimately resulted in the most
anarchical situation of chaos and it provided man with the only solution of giving up the
sense of freedom as is rightly stated by Hobbes that the true price of liberty for the
natural man is that of the eternal form of vigilance prevalent in today’s society (Hobbes
2016).Hobbes has rested the philosophy of liberty in two broad aspects:
Firstly, the notion of fear and hope and the second part lies in the categorization of this
notion of freedom into the man’s thinking that will basically refer to the type of freedom
which is vested in the individual’s inhibition of the good principles. Finally the aspect of
Liberty in the view of Hobbes can be summed up in his words:
“Leviathan makes good use of it!”
Hobbes (1600)

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Idea of Liberty in the Political Writings of Rousseau
In this book, Rousseau has addressed the question of Liberty as an important
factor of the broad domain of political philosophy and it has aimed to explain the process
in which man in his initial state of nature will be drawn towards the enviable concept of
the totality of the concept of liberty of man. According to Rousseau, man acquires
freedom with the help of two aspects where the first aspect lies in the fact that the natural
man will be in his physical state of mind as he will not be constrained by the repressive
state of the human mind which Rousseau found dominated most of the minds. Second
aspect of Rousseau’s concept is that is the essence of freedom in the life of men that
mainly arises from the freedom of need as common man will not be enslaved for by the
artificial form of man’s needs that will define the modernized form of society.
The freedom of need in any man’s life will make it insightful in the aspect of the
revolution in the philosophy of Rousseau. Rousseau also believed in the concept of
enslavement of the modern man for the purpose of fulfillment of his social needs and
freedom from the domination of man by his own sense of depression and poor self-
esteem. Rousseau also believed in the close relationship between good governance of a
nation and the freedom or the liberty that is granted to the citizens of that nation. He also
believed that in order to promote liberty and grant freedom to the people, good
governance and sound administration are the basic prerequisites of any nation. The theory
of social contract in particular was the main attempt of Rousseau in order to promote the
idea of that form of the government that will affirm in the best manner the basic facets of
the individual freedom granted to the men of today’s world along with the other

8IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU
constraints that form the basic premises of the modern, complex and the civil society of
today’s world. Rousseau also emphasized on the particular fact as long as the property
and its different associated laws exist, people cannot fully enjoy their basic rights or the
freedom granted to them as Rousseau clearly mentioned:
“As long as law and property both exists, people cannot enjoy their freedom in
totality
As they do in the present state of nature, at a point later echoed after Marx.”
) Rousseu (1765)
Rousseau also strongly believed on the basic fact that there are certain principles
that exist regarding the principles of governance and he also stated that these principles if
properly enacted and executed then the particular members of the society can avail a
certain level of freedom that will approximately equalize the freedom enjoyed by the
state of nature itself. Rousseau’s principal concept of liberty rests around the basic
premise of the Social Contract theory. Rousseau’s principal question in this context was
how can people will be able to their idea of liberty and the concept of material inequality.
The concept of the Discourse of Inequality will hammer on the specific idea that will be
the root cause of the human misery and the evil that is associated with the freedom of
men and their associated notion of liberty (Rousseau 2018).
The poor people would however be willing to sell their basic premise of freedom
and the rich people who will be capable of purchasing them. In this context Rousseau will
assert the fact that there are some level of material equality that will be present in the
context of liberty for the earning of profits. Rousseau is however equally insistent on the

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defending procedure of the different rights to private property of men. While Rousseau’s
philosophy was mainly against the rising form of eager capitalism, he will not be able to
join the communist group of thinkers in the course of the recommendation of the private
property abolition in totality. Rousseau rightfully stated in this context:
“If we do everything for the benefit of the state, then we will be no longer free.”
Rousseau in the context of laws and the different civil society organizations will
be helpful in making a personal moral in the most instinctive approach of liberty. It is
however not clear about the way in which things will stand alongside the barbarian
civilizations for the type of people who are accustomed in living in the absolute form of
monarchies. Rousseau stated that liberty if present in the natural state then it will enable
the people to enjoy the real civil rights or freedom. Because according to him it has to
become clear regarding the sufficient manifestation of life in itself. However it will be
rarely sufficient to raise those people in the field of the civil freedom of the republic of
any nation.
Conclusion
Hobbes and Rousseau as both of them are contractualists, they have kept their
philosophies based on the rational perception of the society as well as that of man and
therefore it results to that moment for the society until that point appears where the
concept of liberty will become clearer to the men. The investigation of the nature will
have its initial character rested on the different mythological atmosphere of the
explanation of the world. The different overviews and the precepts will ultimately depart
from the pure form of imaginative and a well formed deductive exercise. The notion of

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both Hobbes and Rousseau dependent on a certain nature that will be brought to the
forefront of the contractualist theories. The contractualists in this respect will however be
able to speak as well as idealize the basic theories on the evolution of the state as well as
the evolution of the civil society as a whole. According to Rousseau, the natural form of
liberty that is possessed by man will bring together the common form of good that will
result in the common good of the society. In order to understand such a concept, it will be
necessary to return from the very beginning of the natural man concept of Rousseau.

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References
Hobbes, T., 2016. Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Longman Library of Primary Sources in
Philosophy). Routledge.
Rousseau, J.J., 2018. Rousseau: The Social Contract and other later political writings.
Cambridge University Press.