The founding ideas of English liberalism according to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

Abstract

In this article we will analyze the intellectual genesis of liberalism, at the dawn of the modern world, by discussing the conceptual systems of two great thinkers in the liberalist tradition: Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. It is no coincidence that liberalism was born during the 16th and 17th centuries with the advent of Protestantism. During this period, a series of religious conflicts occurred on the continent: the English Civil War between Puritans and Royalists, as well as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants. The result of the confrontation in England was a compromise between the king and the parliament that took the form of a constitutional monarchy, in which the two authorities limited each other's power. Freedom of faith and religious practice was one of the first conquests of liberalism. Thomas Hobbes lays the intellectual foundations of the modern state by moving from the right of the most powerful to the power of law. For Hobbes, the natural state of humanity consists in fighting and humans are prone to behave like wolves to each other. But living according to this conceptual basis puts human life in constant danger. Transformation can take place only through the call to human reason, through awareness of the need for the rule of law to ensure compliance with regulations and to protect the life and rights of each individual. John Locke derives the theory of the social contract from Hobbes, but continues to develop it further. Locke is aware of the danger of an absolutist state and therefore supports the separation of powers in the state: parliament, government and justice.