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Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher whose conception of man was non-sociological -the life of man is solitary,poor,rusty,brutish and short while the condition of man is a condition of war against everyone. Thus he claimed that men were basically in conflict with each other guided by their greatest motivation-lust for popwer.Consequently order in society is possible with the existence of a strong government the artificial leviathan-the state-which is the product of human reason and social contract.

Parsons refutes this view on the basis of Weber and Durkheim's emphasis on normative aspects of social life such as ideals, values etc.

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