Hobbes & Locke — Live Annotation Exercise

⚠ Academic Integrity Notice — No AI Use Permitted

This is a closed exercise. The use of artificial intelligence tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or any similar tool) to generate, draft, or assist with any part of your responses is strictly prohibited and constitutes academic dishonesty. Your annotations and analysis must be entirely your own thinking, in your own words. The passages are short; read them carefully, sit with them, and respond honestly. Use your brain, not a shortcut.

Introduction

This exercise asks you to closely analyze key passages from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689). These texts present contrasting views of human nature and natural rights that would profoundly influence British literature, political thought, and the development of modern democracy.

Complete the annotation tables for each passage, then work through the comparative analysis questions. A follow-up activity is included at the end and is optional.

Instructions & Submission

Enter your full name in the name field below.
Read each passage carefully — more than once if needed.
Use the annotation prompts to guide your analysis. Record your responses in the table below each passage.
Complete the comparative analysis questions using evidence from both passages. Aim for 3–5 sentences per answer.
The follow-up activity is optional and will not affect your grade if left blank.
When finished, click the “Download My Answers” button at the bottom. This saves a .txt file to your computer.
Upload that file on the Lamda submission page.

Full Name:

Passage A: Hobbes on the State of Nature

Leviathan, Chapter XIII: “Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as Concerning Their Felicity and Misery” (1651)

“Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man… In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. […]

To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice.”

Annotation Prompts for Passage A:

How does Hobbes characterise human nature in the absence of authority?
What does Hobbes suggest about morality in the absence of government?
What specific language creates the emotional impact of this passage?
How does Hobbes define “justice,” and what is its relationship to law?

1. Hobbes on human nature
2. Morality without authority
3. Hobbes’s affective language
4. Justice according to Hobbes

Passage B: John Locke on Natural Rights and the State of Nature

Second Treatise of Government, Chapter II: “Of the State of Nature” and Chapter IV: “Of Slavery” (1689)

“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… And that all men may be restrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the law of nature be observed, which willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is, in that state, put into every man’s hands, whereby every one has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may hinder its violation. […]

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact, according to the trust put in it.”

Annotation Prompts for Passage B:

How does Locke view the “state of nature” differently from Hobbes?
How does Locke define “natural liberty” and “liberty of man, in society”?
Identify phrases that characterise Locke’s view of human reason and morality.
What role does consent play in Locke’s political theory?

1. Locke on “state of nature”
2. What is “natural liberty”?
3. Locke’s rational language
4. Consent according to Locke

Prompts for Comparative Analysis

Answer each question in the space provided. Aim for 3–5 sentences per question. Use specific quotations from the passages to support your points.

1. How do Hobbes and Locke differ in their understanding of human nature? What evidence from the texts supports your analysis?

2. Compare the two philosophers’ views on the relationship between law, morality, and freedom. For Hobbes, what must come first? For Locke, what already exists before government?

3. How might these contrasting perspectives influence different approaches to governance? Which philosopher would be more likely to support absolute monarchy? Which would support limited constitutional government?

4. Based on these passages, how would each philosopher likely respond to tyranny or the abuse of power by a ruler? What does each text imply about the right to resist?

5. How might these philosophical positions relate to the literary developments we will be studying — the rise of the individual voice, the emergence of the novel, the proliferation of civil and political discourse in print?

🔗 Follow-up Activity: Philosophy Meets Literature Optional

This section is entirely optional and will not be penalised if left blank. Complete it only if you wish to go further.

As we move into the literary texts of the Restoration and eighteenth century, the arguments of Hobbes and Locke do not disappear — they resurface in fiction, poetry, periodicals, and satire. Find a passage in one or more of the following upcoming texts that seems to reflect either a Hobbesian or Lockean view of human nature and governance:

Explain the connection you see between the philosophical text and the literary text. How does the author draw on, extend, challenge, or complicate the political ideas you have encountered in this exercise?