GOVERNMENT PHILOSOPHERS

- Thomas Hobbes - Peyton

Lived from: 1588-1679
Age: 91
Accomplishments
● ​First British interpreter of the Thucydides History of Peloponnesian War
● ​He wrote a book Leviathan, subject of government and society
● Defended :
● Materialists Definition: ​ ​person who considers material possessions and physical
comfort as more important than spiritual value
● Nominalist: ​the doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without
any corresponding reality, and that only particular objects exist; properties,
numbers, and sets are thought of as merely features of the way of considering the
things that exist. Important in medieval scholastic thought, nominalism is
associated particularly with William of Occam.
● Empiricist views against Cartesian and Aristotelian: ​a person who supports the
theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.
Physics:
His work was influential on Leibniz, and led him into disputes with Boyle and the
experimentalists of the early Royal Society.

History
He translated Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War into English, and
later wrote his own history of the Long Parliament.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes/

Leviathan Book Summary Notes

● ​Civil peace and social unity are best achieved by the establishment of a
commonwealth through social contract
● Hobbes's ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power responsible for
protecting the security of the commonwealth and granted absolute authority to
ensure the common defense.
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/leviathan/summary/

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- John Locke - Yahoo (Maliyah)
https://iep.utm.edu/locke/#H4
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/#Two TrenGove
English philosopher. Born in 1632 and died in 1704. Wrote “An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding,” “The First Treatise,” and “The Second Treatise.”

The two treatises are the ones we are focusing on the most. The “First Treatise” is
a critique of the work “Patriacha” by Robert Filmer. Filmer’s work claimed that
 divine right monarchy was the superior way to rule. He also claimed that God
gave his power to Adam, and then that power has been passed down throughout
the royal families.

The “Second Treatise” argued that humans were supposed to live in a state of
nature. A state of nature is when citizens do not have a government and each
person has their own rights (EX: The right to attempt to preserve one’s life and
seize unclaimed valuables). The downfall to this is that the people would be in
constant physical threat.

But this information did bring attention to the current rights of a citizen. The
government only has limited power over its citizens. If the government does not
protect the rights of citizens or take away people’s rights, the citizens would be
able to replace the government.

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- Magna Carta(NOT A PERSON) - Corinthia
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magna-Carta/Reissues-of-1216-1217-and-122
5#ref326682
https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/magna-carta

The influence of the Magna Carta in England—and, later, in its colonies—had

come not from the detailed expression of the feudal relationship between lord
and subject but from the more-general clauses in which every generation could
see its own protection.
England’s King John was facing down a possible rebellion by the country’s
powerful barons. Under duress, he agreed to a charter of liberties known as the
Magna Carta (or Great Charter) that would place him and all of England’s future
sovereigns within a rule of law.
Later generations of Englishmen would celebrate the Magna Carta as a symbol of
freedom from oppression, as would the Founding Fathers of the United States of
America, who in 1776 looked to the charter as a historical precedent for asserting
their liberty from the English crown.

Today, memorials stand at Runnymede to commemorate the site's connection to

freedom, justice and liberty. In addition to the John F. Kennedy Memorial,
Britain's tribute to the 36th U.S. president, a rotunda built by the American Bar
Association stands as "a tribute to Magna Carta, symbol of freedom under law."

Written in Latin, the Magna Carta (or Great Charter) was effectively the first
written constitution in European history. Of its 63 clauses, many concerned the
various property rights of barons and other powerful citizens, suggesting the
limited intentions of the framers. The benefits of the charter were for centuries
reserved for only the elite classes, while the majority of English citizens still
lacked a voice in government. In the 17th century, however, two defining acts of
 English legislation–the Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act
(1679)–referred to Clause 39, which states that “no free man shall
be…imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed]… except by the lawful judgment of his
peers or by the law of the land.” Clause 40 (“To no one will we sell, to no one will
we deny or delay right or justice”) also had dramatic implications for future legal
systems in Britain and America.

Its legacy is especially evident in the ​Bill of Rights​ and the U.S. ​Constitution​, and
nowhere more so than in the Fifth Amendment (“Nor shall any persons be
deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”), which echoes
Clause 39. Many state constitutions also include ideas and phrases that can be
traced directly to the historic document

- We the people (Book) - Monica

American government influence

Greek -
- Showed democracy, allowed its citizens to vote on laws rather than choose one
canadae like a president or a king/queen
- The government consisted of over 6,0000 adult male citizen
- It was a requirement for most of the voters to agree to get the law passes

Roman - ​https://www.ushistory.org/civ/6a.asp
Once free, the Romans established a republic, a government in which citizens
elected representatives to rule on their behalf. A republic is quite different from a
democracy, in which every citizen is expected to play an active role in governing
the state.

The highest positions in the government were held by two consuls, or leaders,
who ruled the Roman Republic. A senate composed of patricians elected these
consuls. At this time, lower-class citizens, or plebeians, had virtually no say in the
government. Both men and women were citizens in the Roman Republic, but
only men could vote.
In 449 B.C.E., government leaders carved some of Rome's most important laws
into 12 great tablets. The Twelve Tables, as they came to be known, were the first
Roman laws put in writing. Although the laws were rather harsh by today's
standards, they did guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law.
Rather than rule those people as conquered subjects, the Romans invited them to
become citizens. These people then became a part of Rome, rather than enemies
fighting against it. Naturally, these new citizens received the same legal rights as
everyone else