Pros And Cons Of Hobbes

Hobbes believed that “it is not possible for people to have both freedom and peace, since the state of freedom is a state of unlimited greed and war.” (Document C). i believe that hobbes is right about how there are many selfish people and if it came down to you or them, who would you choose? It is most likely that one chooses to save themselves because at a certain time it comes down to survival. Hobbes thought that we should have a ruler such as a king or queen because “democracy- allowing citizens to vote for government leaders- would never work.

Hobbes believed if there was no government every man will fight against one another for power. To stop the fighting the people form a government to make peace. “To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust” (doc 2). This quote is saying that without laws or any form of government people will fight each other. And

There is no government, no authority whatsoever. Every being is born equal and share the right to do anything for their survival. His political theory was based off his idea that all humans are naturally evil and selfish. Hobbes said that this equality leads to war. “...a war of every man against every man.”

He believed that people formed an agreement between each other and the government, in which they gave up some rights, so that they could live in a safe and orderly way. In his book “Leviathan”, Hobbes says, “…that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things;” This states that man is willing to give up some rights to live in a safe society. I think that this concept of the social contract can be related to the British monarchy. The colonists gave up some of their rights to the King, so as to have order and structure in their

Hobbes believed that natural state of humans was violent and therefore needed order and control to ensure a just and equal society (Robinson 2016, 4). However Hobbes believed that a sovereign could maintain power without deceit and manipulation. Hobbes believed in the social contract which is when people could have a moral understanding about right and wrong to avoid the chaotic violent human nature. Hobbes believed in the idea of utilitarianism which would “maximize the most good and minimize the pain” (Robinson 201, 4). This would ensure that the sovereign was doing things for the right reasons and not to better himself but to better society as a

Hobbes viewed state of nature as a state of war. According to Hobbes, in a state of nature, there is no right to property because no one affords another that right. He stated that property and possessions would inevitably cause men to become enemies. Hobbes believes that people have equal physical and mental ability to harm, and that people will do so for three reasons - competition, difference, and glory. " so that in the state of nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel, first, competition; secondly, difference; thirdly, glory" (Hobbes 2008, p.85).

Hobbes believed that man must escape their state of nature to be protected. Within this social contract the ruler had absolute power over the people which lead to their words and opinions never being heard. Hobbes believed that for the government to function properly, the people must obey the absolute monarchy and accept that their opinions are not being accounted. Hobbes explained, “And therefore, they that are subjects to a Monarch, cannot without his leave cast off Monarchy, and return to the confusion of a disunited Multitude; not tranferre their Person from him that beareth it…” (Hobbes in Perry, 22).

One his theories, stated in his book called Leviathan said that people are not able rule themselves because of how selfish mankind is and they need to be ruled by an iron fist. His political theory was that was also stated in Leviathan was that we should respect government authority under all circumstances to avoid violence. Hobbes was scared of the outcome of the social contract which meant people could get rid of the government if they were unhappy with what they were getting. In order to make well with the social contract he states in Leviathan that people should be completely obedient to the government. His reasoning was that if there was no government, there would be chaos.

Summary Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) theory of social contract, which states that we need moral, legal rules because we want to escape the state of nature which is solitary, poor, brutal, nasty, and short. In this state, a man can kill others, and there are limited resources. This can soon lead to a state of war in which we are constantly disposed to harm others to achieve our goals. So, in this state of war if a person was to possess a beautiful house or property, and had all the comforts, luxuries, and amenities to lead a wonderful life; others could come and harm him and deprive him of his fruit of labor, life, and liberty. Therefore, the state of nature is that of fear, violence, and distrust.

Hobbes was an English philosopher, known through out the world as the author of “Leviathan” which is regarded as one of the earliest examples of the social contract theory. His writings were greatly influenced by the

Hobbes also wrote about how individuals have the right to protect themselves and keep the peace when interacting with other people. He believed that peoples’ rights are attached in social contracts that are given to them when they enter a civil society. Hobbes believed that if a person is part of a society, they have signed on to an artificial contract that they must abide by. The artificial contract that they sign on to includes a list of duties that each civilian must perform.

When Hobbes writes that all men are by nature equal, he means simply that any person can be killed by others. He does not deny that some people may have better abilities, such as being stronger or smarter. However, he claims that these differences are too small to matter: to change the fact that every person is at risk of being killed. For Hobbes, the “state of nature” is any situation where there’s no government. He argues that three causes, which calls “competition,” “difference,” and “glory,” make the state of nature a “state of war”: that is, a situation in which it makes sense for everyone to attack other people.

Imagine living in a world absent of rules, laws and regulations where each person was left to fend for themselves. Everyone had freedom but no one had security. People were dishonest, selfish, treacherous and when necessary even violent without the fear of justice. According to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, this is exactly what our world would like if it was absent of a government. Hobbes believed that in a state of a nature, there is no comfort, code or culture and for those reasons the only way that we could properly live a pleasant life in unity with one another, would be with the use of a social contract.

Throughout the four philosophers you will catch that many have slight similarities but if you pay close attention you’ll catch that one detail they seem to focus on that brings their whole way of thinking and building a new system back down to nothing, and would cause an arguement or even a riot on how they saw things and wanted them to stand without a consequence or someone to stand up against it . For example Hobbes had some real good ideas and had a good point in his way of making a government work but all in all he decided to focus on theories other than the natural rights he had brought up before such as, life, liberty, and property which in reality they were just some valued thinkers giving valued reason like science, religion, and tolerance.

T. Hobbes: The essentials of human nature. After reading the writings of Hobbes about the nature of humans and their attitudes towards each other in the State of Nature, it may be concluded that Hobbes has a pretty pessimistic opinion about them. However, this impression made by Hobbes may be considered both true and false. It may seem true, because in the condition of the State of Nature (in other words, the condition of “perpetual War”) he always describes people as bloodthirsty and selfish creatures, always inclined towards seeking power, getting honor, waging wars and using violence - all the qualities of which nowadays are seen negatively by us.