IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU

Running Head: IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROSSEAU
Idea of Liberty according to Hobbes and Rousseau
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IDEA OF LIBERTY ACORDING TO HOBBES AND ROUSSEAU1
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

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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

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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