John Locke. Hobbes and Locke. While. Lock did not have as bleak a worldview as Hobbes. This is probably because he lived in a time of relative peace. notes Lock, unlike Hobbes, who believed in the separation of powers and the division of the state into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. notesIntroduction. Natural rights theory is a philosophical approach that certain rights, such as life, liberty, and property, are inherent to all human beings and are not granted by the state or society. One of the best-known proponents of natural rights theory is John Locke 1632-1704, an English philosopher considered one of the greatest English philosophers. Hobbes's Leviathan not only influenced his famous successors who adopted the social contract framework, including John Locke 1632-1704, Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-78, and Immanuel. Kant 1724-1804 but also, less directly, the theorists who linked moral and political decision-making in rational human beings to,