The Absolute Government In Thomas Hobbes Leviathan

John Locke’s major philosophies included the Social Contract and the Second Treatises of Government which influenced the Constitution of the United States. John Locke expressed his ideas on human nature and government in his famous Social Contract and The Second Treatise of Government which greatly influenced James Madison to write The Constitution of the United States. According to, (What life would be like in a “State of Nature”,2017), John Locke had no doubt that the State of Nature has a law in which everyone must follow. Those fundamental rights consist of the right to life, liberty, and property. Human Nature results in individuals living without government, which allowed Locke to believe life without government will provoke violence

With it, he justifies absolute monarchy, his ideal political regime. According to him, the sovereign needs unconditional obedience — the sine qua non condition for a state of peace, unless he is unable to keep the people safe. His Leviathan is created by the union of men, the head being the ruler and the body the people: “For by art is created that great ‘Leviathan’ called a ‘Commonwealth’ or ‘State,’ in Latin civitas, which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defense it was intended; and in which the ‘sovereignty’ is an artificial ‘soul,’ as giving life and motion to the whole body”. Authority is what is preserving the state: “Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” Hobbes is trying to reinstate this sense of unity in political community even though he paints the absolute monarch as a god, rising above the covenant.

HIST 3005 Contreras 1 Luis Contreras Sophie Tunney 12/3/2018 The Needs of the people When a form of governing a state becomes obsolete it is sometimes best to do away with that form of governance and install a new form of government. In our “Shaping Of The Modern World” textbook we can find the source “Common sense” by Thomas Paine explaining how ineffective England’s rule over the colonies is, and we can also find “Social Order And Absolute Monarchy” by Jean Domat which argues in favor of absolute rule by the monarchy. Domat’s idea of absolute monarchy is flawed however because when a monarchy is in power it limits the growth of the state, stomp on the natural rights of its citizen’s, their decisions will affect their people

Hobbes believes our natural condition is extremely dangerous. When humans remain in their natural condition, every man is at war against every other man. Hobbes believes that our natural condition is the state of nature which is the stare of war. In the state of nature, there is no government and therefore no laws. Men are able to do anything they want.

While it is not far fetched to say that people prioritize their interest above the interests of other people, this does not mean that they would be in a constant state of war. People are able of cooperation, and in fact need to cooperate in order to survive. To assume that Hobbes’ state of nature was true would be to assume that the only thing stopping people from killing, lying, and stealing is the fact that the law prohibits it. However, most people carry some sort of morality that stops them from doing that, and they also know that cooperation would get them much further than competition. Even if we assume, however, that Hobbes’ state of nature is true, it still would not justify obeying a tyrannical government.

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).

John Locke is an enlightened political philosopher whose explanations to his ideas remains profoundly influential. Locke believes people should have the right to do anything they want without the government enforcing them to do a task. In The Second Treatise, Locke discusses some vital concepts of his thinking, beginning with a discussion of the State of Nature. He explains that humans move from a state of nature characterized by perfect freedom and are governed by reason to a civil government in which the authority is vested in a legislative and executive power. In the State of Nature, men are born equal, to have perfect liberty to maintain.

“In 1651, Hobbes wrote one of the most influential philosophical treatises in human history, Leviathan or the Matter Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. Like his rival, John Locke, Hobbes posited that in a state of nature men and women were free to pursue and defend their own interests, which resulted in a state of war in which “the life of man” was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. ”(“Philosopher who influenced the Founding Fathers and the First Principles,”

In Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan extract, he attempts to justify absolute rule. He believed it was crucial to establish an absolute monarch in order to preserve peace. Hobbes validates an absolute monarchy stating, “...if there be no Power erected... every man will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art, for caution against all other men…”

He supports his argument with Hobbes’ view, who also sees ‘limitations upon the lawful authority of the Sovereign’ and Hobbes further sees the protection of the subject as a requirement for the sovereign’s qualification. (Pierson, 2011, pp. 11-12;

Introduction Speaking on human nature, London-born philosopher Thomas Hobbes commented that, “…the natural state of man’s life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. All mankind [is in] a perpetual and restless desire for power that stops only in death.” The Leviathan (1651) pt1 ch.12. Governments we created so as to protect people from their own selfishness and evil. Recorded history has reveals that man has exceeded his tyrannical rule of totalitarian dictatorship whenever he gets half-a-chance.

Secondly, it will assess some of the opponent views to repressive government being the sure maintenance of political and social order. Furthermore an assessment of whether the theories of Hobbes are still relevant to the current understanding of International Relations considering the events and processes in this particular stage. Thomas Hobbes has commonly been classified as a realist because of his pessimistic perception that the fundamental instinct of all mankind is

In Chapter 13, Hobbes states that “[f]rom this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end... endeavour to destroy or subdue one another... [O]thers may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossess and deprive him, not only of the fruit of his labour, but also of his life or liberty.” The perception in the state of nature, how the quality and belief of quality, is precisely what contributes to the reason why people fight amongst each other. If people are to view themselves as equals, then naturally they would believe they deserve others’ rewards and benefits as well.

In Leviathan, Hobbes argues that peace and unity are achieved through the creation of a commonwealth. An authoritarian government that the people choose to submit due to fear of what happens if the government did not exist. The first part of the book is called “Of Man.” In this part, Hobbes describes the nature of man as a perpetual state of war where every person has the right to do everything they wish since everything can be said that is done due to self-preservation. This leads to conflict and war.

Thomas Hobbes proposed that the ideal government should be an absolute monarchy as a direct result of experiencing the English Civil War, in which there was internal conflict between the parliamentarians and the royalists. Hobbes made this claim under the assumption that an absolute monarchy would produce consistent policies, reduce conflicts and lower the risk of civil wars due to the singular nature of this ruling system. On another hand, John Locke counters this proposal with the view that absolute monarchies are not legitimate as they are inconsistent with the state of nature. These two diametrically opposed views stem from Hobbes’ and Locke’s different understandings of human nature, namely with regard to power relationships, punishment, and equality in the state of nature. Hobbes’ belief that human beings are selfish and appetitive is antithetical with Locke’s contention that human beings are intrinsically moral even in the state of nature, which results in Locke’s strong disagreement with Hobbes’ proposed absolute monarchy.