Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Born in England in 1588, died in 1679.
• Hobbes was a poor student in many ways, struggling to complete his course work. Despite this, he was well-known and respected

  Thomas Hobbes

  among important intellectual groups.
• After getting his degree, he traveled, learning an appreciation of the scientific and critical methods of European science, which contrasted with the scholastic philosophy of his English education, which emphasized rote learning and memorization.
• The English Civil War of 1642 deeply influenced Hobbes. This series of conflicts, which lasted from 1642-1651, were between the democratic forces of Parliament and the Royalists.
• In 1651, he published The Leviathan.

The Leviathan

• Hobbes argued that, while one person may be stronger and more intelligent than another, none are so strong and/or smart as to be beyond a fear of violence or death. In the state of nature, humans are constantly threatened and need to defend themselves constantly. Thus, for Hobbes, the highest human priority must be self-defense.
• Fundamentally, Hobbes believed that human nature was to be selfish.
• In this state of nature, every person has a right to everything in the world. Because of scarcity, there is a constant war of “all against all,” leading to life that is poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
• Hobbes believed, however, that man has a self-interested and materialistic desire to end war, and as a result enter into a social contract. According to Hobbes, society is a population beneath an authority, to whom all individuals in that society surrender just enough of their natural right for the authority to be able to ensure internal peace and a common defense.
• However, Hobbes rejected the idea that royalty was the answer. He believed that the rulers of society should not be assumed because of the divine right of kings, but because of a collective and unconscious mandate of the people.
• This sovereign, whether monarch, aristocracy or democracy (though Hobbes prefers monarchy), should be a Leviathan, an absolute authority. Law, for Hobbes, is the enforcement of contracts.

Powers of the Leviathan

• The first rule is that the sovereign should “do no harm”. As much as possible, the sovereign should keep his/her hands off the people.
• A sovereign also maintains equality within the state, since the common people would be "washed out" in the glare of their sovereign, which he likens to the stars in the face of the sun.
• It is infinitely powerful in controlling aggression one man waging war on another, or any matters pertaining to the cohesiveness of the state
• His negative version of the Golden Rule, in chapter xv, 35, reads: "Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to thyself." This is contrasted with the Christian golden rule, which encourages actively doing unto others: for Hobbes, that is a recipe for social chaos.