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Modern Philosophy

Social Contract Theory: Hobbes to Locke

The competing seventeenth-century accounts of the state of nature, natural rights, and political obligation, from Hobbes's absolutist Leviathan to Locke's theory of limited, consensual government, that founded modern liberal political philosophy.

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. Hobbes's State of Nature and the War of All Against All. Hobbes pictured a pre-political state of nature as a war of every man against every man.
  2. Hobbes's Leviathan and the Absolute Sovereign. Leviathan binds subjects to an indivisible, near-absolute sovereign for the sake of peace.
  3. Locke's State of Nature and Natural Rights. Locke's state of nature is governed by reason and natural rights, not inevitable war.
  4. Locke's Theory of Property and Labor. Locke grounds property in labor mixed with nature, limited by need and later by money.
  5. Locke on Consent, Revolution, and Limited Government. Consent, limited government, and a right of revolution anchor Locke's constitutionalism.
  6. Pufendorf and the Natural Law Tradition. Pufendorf grounded natural law in human sociability, softening Hobbes's stark egoism.
  7. Comparing Hobbesian and Lockean Foundations of Legitimacy. Hobbes and Locke share contract logic but diverge sharply on rights, power, and revolt.
  8. The Social Contract Tradition's Influence on Constitutional Government. Social contract ideas shaped the American, French, and modern constitutional traditions.

This module continues after "Francis Bacon and the Scientific Revolution" in the syllabus. If you haven't reviewed it yet, it may help set the context.

Key points

Visual module map

1Hobbes's State of Nature and the War of All Against All
2Locke's State of Nature and Natural Rights
3Locke on Consent, Revolution, and Limited Government
4Pufendorf and the Natural Law Tradition
5The Social Contract Tradition's Influence on Constitutional Government

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Final test

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Hobbes, T. (1651). Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill. London: Andrew Crooke.
  • Locke, J. (1689). Two Treatises of Government. London: Awnsham Churchill.
  • Pufendorf, S. (1672). De Jure Naturae et Gentium Libri Octo. Lund: Adam Junghans.
  • Laslett, P. (Ed.). (1960). Locke: Two Treatises of Government (Critical edition with introduction). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Skinner, Q. (1996). Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Tuck, R. (1979). Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.