Week 6 : Hobbes
Readings: extracts from Leviathan: Headnote and Hobbes’s own Introduction, chapters 1-4, 6, 10, 13-17, Conclusion in the Morgan anthology.
[11-19 are the key chapters]
13: state of nature, state of war…..
HOBBES… LEVIATHAN
Clearly the first, greatest, most influential early modern political theorist—really one could say the most influential prose or non-fiction writer of Europe/England/early modern world.
Background:
1. struggles over religious power and authority, incl doctrine/ dogma/belief.
2. Power of church versus power of crown versus parliament 3. Civil war 1642-51.
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed
manner of England's government. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3
September 1651.
Hobbes is alive through all of this and in effect goes from being a royalist to a republican of some type. His life was under threat very often—… from the royalists and religious fundamentalists. He is clearly an atheist by the standards of his own time, though for him this is rooted in a naturalistic philosophy that does
vaguely but clearly include some notion of a God. Hobbes rejects the idea of a divine providence or guidance as opposed to a real-world sovereign and social contract (note that the contract is something of a myth—no such actual document exists. As Hobbes et al well knew—for them it is a metaphor, but points to a real thing or pehenomenon).
IN the final section of his book he asks a very big question in response to the civil wars: Does a subject have the right to
change allegiance when a former sovereign's power to protect is irrevocably lost? His answer is a Yes.
Leviathan argues that civil peace and social unity are best
achieved by the establishment of a commonwealth through social contract. Hobbes's ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power responsible for protecting the security of the
commonwealth as an "artificial person" and as a body politic that mimics the human body. The frontispiece to the first edition of Leviathan, which Hobbes helped design, portrays the
commonwealth as a gigantic human form built out of the bodies of its citizens, the sovereign as its head. Hobbes calls this figure the "Leviathan," a word derived from the Hebrew for "sea
monster" and the name of a monstrous sea creature appearing in the Bible; the image constitutes the definitive metaphor for
Hobbes's perfect government. His text attempts to prove the necessity of the Leviathan for preserving peace and preventing civil war.
Leviathan is divided into four books: "Of Man," "Of Common-wealth," "Of a Christian Common-Common-wealth," and "Of the Kingdome of Darknesse." Book I contains the philosophical framework for the entire text, while the remaining books simply extend and elaborate the arguments presented in the initial chapters.
Consequently, Book I is given the most attention in the detailed summaries that follow. Hobbes begins his text by considering the elementary motions of matter, arguing that every aspect of
human nature can be deduced from materialist principles.
Hobbes depicts the natural condition of mankind--known as the state of nature--as inherently violent and awash with fear. The state of nature is the "war of every man against every man," in which people constantly seek to destroy one another. This state is so horrible that human beings naturally seek peace, and the best way to achieve peace is to construct the Leviathan through social contract.
compatibility of Christian doctrine with Hobbesian philosophy and the religious system of the Leviathan. Book IV engages in debunking false religious beliefs and arguing that the political implementation of the Leviathanic state is necessary to achieve a secure Christian commonwealth.
Hobbes's philosophical method in Leviathan is modeled after a geometric proof, founded upon first principles and established definitions, and in which each step of argument makes
conclusions based upon the previous step. Hobbes decided to create a philosophical method similar to the geometric proof after meeting Galileo on his extended travels in Europe during the 1630s. Observing that the conclusions derived by geometry are indisputable because each of constituent steps is
indisputable in itself, Hobbes attempted to work out a similarly irrefutable philosophy in his writing of Leviathan.
TERMS:
Commonwealth - A multitude of people who together consent to a sovereign authority, established by contract to have absolute power over them all, for the purpose of providing peace and common defense.
rights over others that they are content for everyone else to retain over them.
>>>> consent in Hobbes>> an agreement, de facto. “mutual transferring of right.”
First Principles - The fundamental and irreducible facts of nature that are established by philosophical definition and upon which philosophical arguments may be built. According to
Hobbes, first principles are not discovered by observation or experiment but are decided by philosophical debate and social consent.
Law of Nature - A general rule discovered by reason that forbids a person from doing anything destructive to her own life and gives her the right of self-preservation. The laws of nature state that human beings must strive for peace, which is best achieved by contract.
>>> Self-preservation….."by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of
preserving the same, and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved." [Leviathan, Ch. VI]
Also VI:
"From this fundamental law of nature, by which men are commanded to
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; and be contented with
so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against
himself. For as long as every man holdeth this right, of doing anything he
liketh; so long are all men in the condition of war. But if other men will not
lay down their right, as well as he, then there is no reason for anyone to
divest himself of his: for that were to expose himself to prey, which no man
is bound to, rather than to dispose himself to peace. This is that law of the
gospel: Whatsoever you require that others should do to you, that do ye to
them." [Leviathan, Ch. VI
Leviathan - A metaphor for the state, the Leviathan is
described as an artificial person whose body is made up of all the bodies of its citizens, who are the literal members of the
of nature in order to escape the horrors of this natural condition. The power of the Leviathan protects them from the abuses of one another.
Materialism - The philosophy of materialism states that physical matter and its motion explain all phenomena in the universe and construct the only reality that human beings can experience.
Natural Man - An inhabitant of the state of nature. Natural men are the main characters of the narrative within Hobbes's text, who escape from their natural condition by making a contract with each other to engineer the Leviathan. Although they are "men," the term also includes women (though the
gender significance of this term should not be entirely ignored).
Sovereign - The person, or group of persons, endowed with sovereignty by the social contract. The sovereign is the head of the Leviathan, the maker of laws, the judge of first principles, the foundation of all knowledge, and the defender of civil peace.
Sovereignty - Supreme authority over a commonwealth.
Sovereignty is owed complete obedience by its subjects. Hobbes describes sovereignty as the soul of the Leviathan.
State of Nature - The "natural condition of mankind" is what would exist if there were no government, no civilization, no laws, and no common power to restrain human nature. The state of nature is a "war of all against all," in which human beings
constantly seek to destroy each other in an incessant pursuit for power. Life in the state of nature is "nasty, brutish and short."
