A Comparative Glance at Thomas Hobbes, John Locke Ideas about the Concept of Freedom
Khashayar Bourbouri
Abstract
Since the immemorial time, the concept of freedom is one of the fundamental concepts which have had numerous effects on human lives. Many people suffered countless tortures or were jailed and sent to exile or even lost their lives due to freedom. Nevertheless, freedom can be considered to imply having volition and autonomy in practice and doing things; in a way that no one would force anyone to do anything which is not his desired action. Thus, freedom implies having the ability to do or refuse to do something. Generally speaking, freedom can be regarded as a general law which dominates the whole domain of life. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are two main theoreticians of social contract who offered different views of the notion of freedom. The study of the view of these two theoreticians of freedom is necessary because one of them is the father of the idea of totalitarianism while the other is the founding father of liberalism. The current research is conducted using descriptive and analytic method and assays the ideas of these two philosophers concerning the notion of freedom within the context of their works.
