Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Leviathan was written during the English Civil War; much of

the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of
a strong central authority to avoid the evil of discord and
civil war. Any abuses of power by this authority are to be
accepted as the price of peace. In particular, the doctrine
of separation of powers is rejected: the sovereign must
control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers.
In Leviathan, Hobbes explicitly states that the sovereign
has authority to assert power over matters of faith and
doctrine, and that if he does not do so, he invites
discord. Hobbes presents his own religious theory, but
states that he would defer to the will of the sovereign
(when that was re-established).

Bellum omnium contra
omnes
John Locke
John Locke (August 29, 1632 October 28, 1704) was
an influential English philosopher. In epistemology, Locke
has often been classified as a British Empiricist, along
with David Hume and George Berkeley. He is equally
important as a social contract theorist, as he developed an
alternative to the Hobbesian state of nature and argued a
government could only be legitimate if it received the
consent of the governed through a social contract and
protected the natural rights of life, liberty, and estate. If
such consent was not given, argued Locke, citizens had a
right of rebellion. Locke is one of the few major
philosophers who became a minister of government.
Social Contract
Social contract theory (or contractarianism) is a concept
used in philosophy, political science, and sociology to
denote an implicit agreement within a state regarding the
rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or
more generally a similar concord between a group and
its members, or between individuals. All members within
a society are assumed to agree to the terms of the social
contract by their choice to stay within the society without
violating the contract; such a violation would signify a
problematic attempt to return to the state of nature. It has
been often noted, indeed, that social contract theories
relied on a specific anthropological conception of man as
either "good" or "evil". Thomas Hobbes (1651), John
Locke (1689) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) are
the most famous philosophers of contractarianism, which
is the theoretical groundwork of democracy.
Introduction
In CONGRESS, J uly 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to
dissolve the Political bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to
the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which
impel them to the Separation.

The Preamble
We hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they
are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to
alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on
such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be
changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath
shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and
to provide new Guards for their future Security.
David Hume
David Hume (April 26,
1711 August 25,
1776) was a Scottish
philosopher,
economist, and
historian, as well as
an important figure of
Western philosophy
and of the Scottish
Enlightenment
Utilitarianism
It was probably Hume who, along with his fellow members
of the Scottish Enlightenment, first advanced the idea
that the explanation of moral principles is to be sought in
the utility they tend to promote. On the contrary, Hume
was a moral sentimentalist and, as such, thought that
moral principles could not be intellectually justified.
Some principles simply appeal to us and others don't;
and the reason why utilitarian moral principles do appeal
to us is that they promote our interests and those of our
fellows, with whom we sympathize. Humans are hard-
wired to approve of things that help society public
utility. Hume used this insight to explain how we evaluate
a wide array of phenomena, ranging from social
institutions and government policies to character traits
and talents
An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding
By the term impression, then, I mean all our more lively
perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or
hate, or desire, or will. And impressions are
distinguished from ideas, which are the less lively
perceptions, of which we are conscious, when we reflect
on any of those sensations or movements above
mentioned.
It seems a proposition, which will not admit of much
dispute, that all our ideas are nothing but copies of our
impressions, or, in other words, that it is impossible for
us to think of anything, which we have not antecedently
felt, either by our external or internal senses.