Monday, October 6, 2008

Hobbes and Rousseau

I do believe that after reading chapter 7 that we are dealing with two extremists. Though they do talk about two different extremes ,I agree with both to an extent. I agree with Hobbes when he says that people are naturally evil, because we have to be taught how to share when we are young. We have this innate behavior at around age two that everything is ours until it is scolded out of us that we need to share our stuff. After we are nurtured to share, it is then up to us when we are older how we want to live our lives. In the view of Hobbes we always look out for ourselves and when we do do a charitable deed it is because we want to alleviate the person's distress which is causing our distress. I disagree with Hobbes when he makes this point because I believe that there are people who are taught to be not selfish and stick to it and actually help people because they want to.
I have to disagree with Rousseau's idea that people are noble savages. I do believe we are born a blank slate, however like I stated in the previous paragraph when we are children the innate idea that everything is ours comes into play. I do agree with him when he says that the government is the playing role in the corruption of people. Government determines who has power and who doesn't and everyone wants to have power of some sort. Power and government is enough to tear family apart. In the movie "Man in the Iron Mask," it shows the life of a King in Paris, France. This King had a twin brother that he didn't know about until he was fifteen when his father told him on his death bed. The father separated the two sons because he saw too many kingdoms torn apart by brothers feuding and didn't want that to happen with his sons. After learning about his twin, the king imprisoned him and set an iron mask on him because he wanted to protect his power and his crown. The King was power hungry and it can be said that power can do this to anyone. Both Rousseau and Hobbes were smart men with great points, they were polar opposites and very extreme.

No comments: