An essay comparing the works of Hobbes and Rousseau

The States of Hobbes and Rousseau

For an individual to be considered a good citizen, there are certain expectations they must follow to attain this objective. In their books The Leviathan and The Social Contract, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau create a system of political governing where the citizen plays a certain role and has certain expectations to carry out this role for the governmental system to work properly. Both men have quite different opinions in regards to the roles of citizens and how they support the state. While both are excellent theories and create a strong case for government, neither is applicable in the real world because what is demanded of the citizen in these systems of government is based on certain assumptions, which are not evident to the every-day person.
In his brief introduction to Levitation, Thomas Hobbes theorizes the state of nature . He states that all individuals are egocentric by nature. Hobbes states that men spend the entirety of t...