Hobbes makes a negative description of human nature (behaviour). According to him, a human is inspired by cruelty, selfishness, violence, fear and greed for power, and he is dominated by monstrous tendencies. The reasons of savage tendencies in a person are competitiveness, distrust and greed of power. He regards a person as a reservoir of bad qualities.
Locke makes positive description of human nature.
He thinks a person to be rational and peaceful. Locke’s natural man is filled with decency, mercy, cooperation, charity, etc. He embraces the directives of life from the natural laws. Rousseau makes both-positive as well as negative descriptions of human nature. According to Rousseau, in the beginning, human was naturally decent.
He was a noble savage, but while progressing towards civilization, he developed the spirit of distinctions with the rise of private property. In is quite clear from the above details that, while Hobbes describes the human as selfish, violent and cruel, Locke and Rousseau regard the human to be pure and decent.
