Ideology Philosophers

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Collectivist

• Saw humans as inherently selfish

• Government to protect people from each other and provide stability and security

• Security > freedom

• Advocated for dictatorship

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Individualist

• Advocated for democracy

• Individuals have the right to use reason and logic to make their own decisions

• People are rational, intelligent and reasonable

• Government to protect life, liberty, and property

• People could overthrow a government that went against their rights

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

• Father of capitalism

• If people worked for themselves, everyone would be better off

• Free market would lead to a stronger economy

• Criticized mercantilism

• Invisible hand: when everyone looks after their own best interests, they unwillingly end up helping everyone and everything else

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

• Father of communism

• Marxism: radical form of socialism

• Command/centrally planned economy

• Only way to overthrow capitalism was a violent class struggle between workers and owners

• Wrote the communist manifesto

• Means of production in worker’s hands

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

• Feared the “tyranny of the majority”

• Law reflect the will of the majority while respecting the rights of the minority

• Protection of individual freedom and promotion of individual decision making

• Only limitations put on individuals that would protect the liberty of others

• Free speech

Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu (1687-1755)

• Worth of individual, equality of individuals, and accountability of the government

• No one person in power

• Elimination of the state system

• Government split into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial

• Democracy; each citizen to participate

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• People are a product of their environment; born good and corrupted by society

• General will of people was the absolute authority

• Give up freedom for common good

• No representative democracy

• All people equal

• No huge accumulations of private property

Voltaire (1694-1788)

• Personal liberty and responsibility

• Separation of church and state

• Civil rights

• Social progress achieved by reason and no authority was immune

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

• Utilitarianism, laws reflect the will of the majority

• Increases pleasure = good

• Increases pain = bad

• Greatest good for the greatest number

• Pro-gay

• Society not controlled by a minority (eg. monarchy)

Niccolo Machiaveli (1469-1527)

• Rulers must be feared in order to keep their power over the people

• Cruel actions (killing) are necessary to acquire the greater good for the masses; death will be forgiven but not the taking of property

• “Any rulers who rely simply on promises will be destroyed”

Edmund Burke

• Change should take the past and future into account, not just the present

• Society should be a hierarchy, best suited to lead at the top, uninformed should not have a say

• Leaders humanitarian, care for others

• Stable society through traditions, law, order, and customs