Preservation

I found John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government,” to be an easier read than Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan.” Locke’s goes point-by-point in making his argument and avoids complaining about metaphor and then using it anyway. In reading Locke, I couldn’t help but notice the emphasis Locke places on a person’s ability to use reason when forming and making decisions. More specifically, Locke addresses the issue of self-preservation. “By right of self-preservation…it is that every man, in the state of nature, has a power to kill a murderer.” For Locke, the act of killing a murderer, thus preserving others’ lives, would be a service to the greater good, since it would prevent any future murders. Compare that with Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” where Hobbes speaks of self-preservation in reference to stealing food to preserve one’s life and that of his/her family. “A man would reason thus: If I do it not, I die presently; if I do it, I die afterwards.” Hobbes, like Locke, uses reason as a reason for one to justify breaking the law, because a man may “in defense of his life snatch away another man’s sword.” Locke emphasizes the necessity for a person to be “in the state of nature,” where no man has any power over the next.