How old is the declaration of independence?

How can it be said that the Declaration of Independence was purely "Lockean" but the constitution was Hobbsian

• How can it be said that the Declaration of Independence was purely "Lockean" (John Locke) but the Constitution was purely Hobbesian? (Thomas Hobbes). This is purely analytical and long answers are appreciated.

• Answer:

  Locke and Hobbes were 17th-century contemporaries and held opposing views on human nature. Locke held position that people were in general reasonable and tolerant and able to govern themselves in most things. Government, then, was designed to be an instrument of the will of the people, and had as its primary goals the protection of life, liberty, and property. He believed that government should only exist with the consent of the governed, and without that consent, the people had a right or an obligation to rebel. Locke's idea were keenly poignant to the colonists who met in 1775 and 1776 to declare their independence from England. In their view, the British government did not have the consent of the colonies to govern them, and should therefore go away. Hobbes' most important work was a book entitled 'Leviathan,' which was a political treatise on the formation, growth, and dissolution of governments. Hobbes believed that self-interest was the key to human nature, and that government was the tool by which one man's self-interest was constrained so as not to destroy the lives of others. The goal of government, then, is to protect us all from each others' greed. Frankly, I don't find the Constitution particularly Hobbesian. Hobbes firmly vested all power into a single monarch. He denied the value of the separation of powers. He placed religious authority squarely in the hands of the King. His only real contribution to the Constitution was the philosophy that the powers of the King should be limited to only those required to protect life, property, and the continuance of the government. Aside from that, the King should keep his hands off and let the people do as they please, so long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else. Now, Capitalism, our economic policy, is VERY Hobbesian, since Hobbes held that all people had a right to whatever they could get, as long as they could get it without harming anyone else.