The Grand Objective of the Lesson: To go over the tests and the upcoming outline/bibliography assignment; to start reading Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government.

The Not-So-Grand Objective of the Lesson: To pass out handouts (Locke) and books (Mill).

Do Now: Look over your test when you receive it.

Reading and discussion: What is the natural state of humanity, according to John Locke? How does Locke’s view of the natural state differ from that of Hobbes? What do the two views have in common?

HW: Students writing the regular essay: please provide a thesis statement and an outline of your essay. Be sure to include counterarguments.

Students in the Honors project: please present a refined topic, three questions related to the topic, and your current responses to these questions. Also, please give a bibliography.

Test Questions (for discussion of test)

1. What lesson does Machiavelli draw from comparing Cesare Borgia with the Florentines? Explain the role of these two examples in his argument. (That is, explain how the examples illustrate and strengthen his points.) 2. How does Machiavelli perceive human nature in general? (Note on your tests: many of you said he perceived human nature as “evil”; this is not so. We will discuss the distinction between human weakness and evil.) 3. Do you agree with Machiavelli’s appraisal of human nature? Why or why not? (This is an opinion question—but you must be specific.) 4. What similarities and differences do you find here between the ideas of Machiavelli and those of Hobbes? 5. Machiavelli states that it is difficult to unite in one person the ability to be both loved and feared. Use your imagination to explain why that might be the case.

Sample Thesis Statement and Outline(No one is writing on this topic.)

Thesis Statement: Although Thomas Hobbes and Niccolò Machiavelli depict humanity in similarly negative terms, Hobbes, unlike Machiavelli, believes in humans’ capacity to act for the common good.

A. Introduction and ThesisB. Background: Leviathan and The Prince (overview; what they are about)

1. Hobbes Leviathan is…2. The Prince is…

C. Hobbes’ and Machiavelli’s similar depictions of human nature1. Hobbes describes humans in nature as…2. Machiavelli describes humans overall as….

D. Hobbes’ optimism about humans’ capacity to act for the common good1. Once humans see death around them, they come to a realization…

E. Machiavelli’s pessimism about humans’ capacity to act for the common good1. People are too fickle to be trusted; they will support you when it benefits them to do so or when you seem successful

F. Conclusion: In many ways, Hobbes is more optimistic about human nature than Machiavelli, despite his assertion that the life of man in the state of nature is ultimately “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Leviathan1651

Thomas Hobbes1588-1679

CHAPTER XIII: OF THE NATURAL CONDITION OF MANKIND AS CONCERNING THEIR FELICITY AND MISERY

NATURE hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as that, though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself.

[…]

From this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end (which is principally their own conservation, and sometimes their delectation only) endeavour to destroy or subdue one another. And from hence it comes to pass that where an invader hath no more to fear than another man's single power, if one plant, sow, build, or possess a convenient seat, others may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossess and deprive him, not only of the fruit of his labour, but also of his life or liberty. And the invader again is in the like danger of another.

The Second Treatise of Civil Government1690

John Locke1632-1704

CHAP. II.

Of the State of Nature.

Sec. 4. TO understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.

A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty.