Table of Contents
Hobbes explains the connection between nature, man, and society through the law of inertia. A moving object continues to move until impeded by another force, and 'trains of imagination' or speculation are abated only by logical demonstration. So also man's liberty or desire to do what he wants is checked only by an equal and opposite need for security. A society or commonwealth 'is but an artificial man' invented by men, and to understand the underlying rationale for the creation of such a being an individual should merely take the time to examine himself as part of nature.
Freedom, according to Hobbes, is cold comfort because life in anarchy--the absence of government--is characterized as 'solitary, nasty, brutish, and short." The equality of human desire is matched by an economy of natural satisfaction. Men are addicted to power because its acquisition is the only guarantee of living well. Men therefore live in 'a state of perpetual war' driven by competition and the desire for the same limited resources. The important consequence of this view is that man's natural rights and liberty is limited by the necessity to seek self-preservation by any means. In this state of nature there is no value above that of self-interest because where there is no common, coercive power there is no law and no justice.
However, there is a second and derivative law of nature: men may surrender their individual will and transfer their individual rights to the state. This 'social contract' binds the individual to treat others as he expects to be treated by them. Only a constituted civil power commands sufficient force to compel everyone to fulfill this original compact by which men exchange liberty for security.
In Hobbes' view the sovereign power of a commonwealth is absolute and not subject to the laws and obligations of citizens. Obedience is compulsory so long as the sovereign fulfills the social compact by protecting the rights of the individual. Consequently rebellion is unjust, by definition, but should the cause of revolution prevail, a new absolute sovereign is created.
| THOMAS HOBBES |
The English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) was one of the central figures of British empiricism. His major work, Leviathan,
published in 1651, expressed his principle of materialism and his concept of the social
contract forming the basis of society.
"CONTRACTS WITHOUT THE SWORD ARE ONLY WORDS; THE WILL OF THE SOVEREIGN MUST BE LAW"
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Principle Ideas Advanced | ||
|---|---|---|---|
I. NATURE
B. SECURITY: RULE OF LAW
II. THE
SOCIAL CONTRACT III. SOVEREIGN AND
SUBJECTS IV. MONARCHY |
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