Assess Hobbes Arguments In Favour Of Absolute Power

Giuliano Pisarski N0511199

Assess Hobbes’ arguments in favour of absolute sovereign power.

Thomas Hobbes is well known to be in favour of absolutism and has always clearly stated in his works such as Leviathan that the the sovereign of a nation, kingdom or principality has the right of absolute power and rule over it.

Hobbes was born in Westport, England, on April 5, 1588 and raised from a young age by his uncle, as his father a disgraced vicar who ran away from his family. His uncle provided Hobbes with education and from a young age he excelled as a student of classical languages and at 14 he went to Magdalen Hall in Oxford to study. He then spent many years travelling Europe meeting with other scholars and upon returning to England

This work that defended the King set out his right to rule England and criticised when parliament tried to interfere with the kings business, especially in the decade before where issues were raised on the king’s powers to raise funds for armies. This work ‘The elements of law’, natural and politic was Hobbes’ first work of political philosophy even though he didn’t intend for it to be distributed as a book amongst royalists. After his position on the monarchy and King Charles I reign was made clear by this literature, he fled the country in 1540 before the start of the civil war, which resulted in Charles’ execution, for his own safety as his support for the royalists and monarchy proved unpopular and he was seen as a public figure for them. With the outcome of the war this was a wise thing to

He thought this was also the opinion and attitude of many of the governing classes in England, which imminently led to the civil war.

Hobbes take on the sovereign in leviathan was that they ‘have been given the right of governing through the social contract.’ Meaning that the sovereign, who has been selected before birth to one day rule, has a duty to carry out his authority. ‘has the three “marks” of Sovereignty, namely, control of the military, ability to raise money, and control of religious doctrines.’

However these 3 powers can be seized by a person that has not been given the right of governing in the social contract and this is exactly what happened during the civil war according to Hobbes in his book ‘Behemoth’ as there is specified between the de facto sovereign and the de jure sovereign which show the different ways to identify a sovereign. When King Charles was taken prisoner, he remained the de jure sovereignty while the armed forces were the de facto