Thomas Hobbes vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes are two great writers in the 16 and 17 hundreds. Each of them epitomizes the general philosophical periods of their age, Hobbes and the Empiricist, and Rousseau with the Romantics. The social contract is a huge part of the conflict between the two. Even with the fundamental basis for both arguments, they are developed in differing ways. Hobbes believes that without it, people would not be able …showed first 75 words of 877 total…

…showed last 75 words of 877 total…based on their belief of the perfect human, one Romantic, one Empiricist. And even though Rousseau does not believe in the social contract, he is resigned to the fact that by living in society, he has signed his rights away. He also knows that no matter how much he hates it, there is no way that you can change the fact of the contract, and you can’t revert yourself back to your natural State.