Hobbes and Sovereignty

A detailed Summary of Hobbes and Sovereignty

All throughout history, man has struggled to try to understand society, and looked for a way in which to improve it. This has invoked many philosophers to contemplate the formation and legitimacy of government. One such philosopher was Thomas Hobbes, who went into great depth and detail on this subject of politics, in his incredible works The Leviathan. In this piece of literature, Hobbes describes a natural world that is void of any form of government or society, and explains how everyone in this world lives in constant fear and war. The awful imagery that Hobbes projects of this world of anarchy, which he calls a state of nature, is not left without an explanation of how its people may escape into a lawful society. Thomas Hobbes argues that in order for this escape to occur there must exist an absolute monarch.

In order to understand why Hobbes feels that an absolute monarch is necessary we must first take a closer look at exactly what the state of nature is. According to Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651), the state of nature was a world,

"where there was no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, nor use of the commodities that

(12) Power of all civil appointments, including the militia

(4) Sovereign cannot be unjust or injure any subject

It is true however, when Hobbes says that the sovereign's policies will be more consistent, but this is not necessarily a good thing. Simply because the policies will be consistent, in no way means that they will not be consistently bad. Again, Hobbes argument for this is that a monarch would not be a tyrant, and so on that assumption his point is valid. However, saying that absolute power would not corrupt any man is extremely unrealistic. Hobbes other argument for the preference of a single sovereign, compared to that of a group, is the lesser chance of civil war due to little, or no conflict between the monarch and anyone. Again, Hobbes is accurate only due to the assumption, that a monarch is incapable of being a tyrant. Without this assumption, civil war would be imminent. The power lust and warmongering of a tyrannical sovereign would most assuredly result in the rebellion against the government, who would defend themselves by use of the royal army.

One of the many powers that an absolute sovereign would possess, according to Hobbes, would be that of punishment of anyone he felt deserving. This is a very reasonable and necessary function of any leader. They must make the laws, rules, regulations, and punishments for those that break them. Hobbes felt that the sovereign's powers should be as follows.

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Approximate Word count = 4103
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)

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