The main similarity being what the purpose of the government or political power is, whereas the main difference is how they view the state of nature. Hobbes views the state of nature as a state of war, whereas Locke views it still as a society, but one that lacks true executive powers. Both philosophers made great contributions to political philosophy, but each had their own failures which later political philosophers tried to fix: “The tradition of political theory that begins with Hobbes and Locke, and continues today with Rawls and Habermas and their innumerable followers, has a blind spot, to which several theorists drew attention in the 1990s. That blind spot is the question of nationhood and nationalism” (Alexander-Davey, p.458). Overall, Hobbes and Locke had their differences, but each added something new to the conversation of political philosophy and the state of
The main similarity being what the purpose of the government or political power is, whereas the main difference is how they view the state of nature. Hobbes views the state of nature as a state of war, whereas Locke views it still as a society, but one that lacks true executive powers. Both philosophers made great contributions to political philosophy, but each had their own failures which later political philosophers tried to fix: “The tradition of political theory that begins with Hobbes and Locke, and continues today with Rawls and Habermas and their innumerable followers, has a blind spot, to which several theorists drew attention in the 1990s. That blind spot is the question of nationhood and nationalism” (Alexander-Davey, p.458). Overall, Hobbes and Locke had their differences, but each added something new to the conversation of political philosophy and the state of