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Thomas Hobbes During The English Revolution

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The English revolution was a time of great civil and political unrest, caused by a divide between the Parliament and King Charles I in 1628 (Petrovic 8) which profoundly influenced many philosophers’ political view during the English Enlightenment among whom was Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes, a political philosopher and royalist, composed one of his most influential works Leviathan in response to the political turmoil he experienced during the English Civil Wars (Petrovic 9). After members of the parliament opposed King Charles I who believed in his divine right to absolute power causing a civil war broke out between the two oppositions, Hobbes fled to France in 1640 for fear of his life as a royalist and supporter of the King (Petrovic 8). Eventually, …show more content…

However, this law could pose a problem because if only a few will consent to give up their right they would essentially put themselves in danger (35). It would also conflict with the first law of nature in which everyone has a right to defend himself. Therefore, to truly achieve peace and stability humans should enter a mutual agreement through a social contract. Hobbes argues that such an agreement is necessary in order to get humans “...out from that miserable condition of war” (p. 36). However, because it is likely that humans in their natural state of self-interest won’t follow their agreements, Hobbes believes that “agreements without the sword are but words, and of no strength to secure man at all” (36). Therefore, he suggests that everyone consents to give up their rights to an absolute authority for his/her own good whether it is one person or body of persons (38). Hobbes also proposes that humans enter a covenant with the authority and submit to a power as if they are “all in one and the same person” which is his ideal “commonwealth” (39). This is the conclusion from which Hobbes derives the title of his work Leviathan, a biblical figure who is “the monster that ruled over chaos at the beginning of the world” (Petrovic 12). To Hobbes, the most effective power to preserve harmony in the commonwealth would be a monarch (39) who would be most successful in fulfilling his duties namely protecting the commonwealth and enforcing good laws as well as “public instruction, both of doctrine and example” (39-40). In Hobbes opinion, it would be devastating, essentially the “greatest evil”, if the rights of the sovereign were violated as this would have people fall back to the state of nature which everyone would want to avoid (40). It is not surprising that Hobbes draws this conclusion given that he experienced the

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He believed that people formed an agreement between each other and the government, in which they gave up some rights, so that they could live in a safe and orderly way. In his book “Leviathan”, Hobbes says, “…that a man be willing, when 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;” This states that man is willing to give up some rights to live in a safe society. I think that this concept of the social contract can be related to the British monarchy. The colonists gave up some of their rights to the King, so as to have order and structure in their

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Hobbes believed that natural state of humans was violent and therefore needed order and control to ensure a just and equal society (Robinson 2016, 4). However Hobbes believed that a sovereign could maintain power without deceit and manipulation. Hobbes believed in the social contract which is when people could have a moral understanding about right and wrong to avoid the chaotic violent human nature. Hobbes believed in the idea of utilitarianism which would “maximize the most good and minimize the pain” (Robinson 201, 4). This would ensure that the sovereign was doing things for the right reasons and not to better himself but to better society as a

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According to Hobbes, a sovereign, whether the sovereign was placed into power by violence or force, is the only way to secure law and order. For him, if a citizen obeys the sovereign for fear of punishment or in the fear of the state of nature, it is the choice of the citizen. According to Hobbes, this is not tyranny; it is his idea of a society that is successful, one that does not have room for democracy. As a realist, Hobbes has a fierce distrust of democracy and viewed all of mankind in a restless desire for power. If the people are given power, law and order would crumble in Hobbes’ eyes.

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One his theories, stated in his book called Leviathan said that people are not able rule themselves because of how selfish mankind is and they need to be ruled by an iron fist. His political theory was that was also stated in Leviathan was that we should respect government authority under all circumstances to avoid violence. Hobbes was scared of the outcome of the social contract which meant people could get rid of the government if they were unhappy with what they were getting. In order to make well with the social contract he states in Leviathan that people should be completely obedient to the government. His reasoning was that if there was no government, there would be chaos.

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A social contract is made possible when people give part of their rights in exchange for peace. When a sovereign is in place, the people are giving their rights to that ruler in exchange for the possibility of peace. Hobbes bases his argument on the theory that there is a ‘state of nature’ in which all people value, desire, etc. the same

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It was then that Hobbes began his education, and exceeded expectations of his teachers at his grade schools and colleges. After the English Civil War in 1642, many people were contemplating the legitimacy of state power in England. This questioning of power is what inspired Hobbes to write the Leviathan. Like most of Hobbes works, the Leviathan was influenced by Francis Bacon, which is prevalent in Hobbes’ writing style.

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When comparing the two different accounts of English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke we must take into consideration a number of things such as the age in which they lived and the time in which they produced their philosophical writings. We will however find out that these two philosophers actually have a couple of things in which agree on even though most of their opinions clash. On one side we have Thomas Hobbes who lived in the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651) who provides a negative framework for his philosophical opinions in his masterpiece Leviathan and who advocates for philosophical absolutism . On the other side we have John Locke, living during the glorious revolution (1688-1689) he presents a positive attitude in his book The Second Treatise of Government and advocates for philosophical and biblical constitutionalism. It is important that we know that the state of nature describes a pre- political society prior to the social contract.

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According to Hobbes, only a sovereign can guarantee the respect of the laws of nature (Carrabregu). For him, there is no such thing as an extra-legal morality as one can see when he makes the claim that, “The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no place [in the state of nature]. Where there is no common Power, there is no Law: where no Law, no Injustice,” (Hobbes 90). Thus, injustice can only be gauged once there are laws and people to enforce the laws. A sovereign is what is needed to enforce covenants between two people because, as Hobbes claims, “…if there be a common Power set over them both, with right and force sufficient to compel performance, it is not Voyd,” where the fear of breaking a covenant is a force sufficient to compel them (Hobbes 96).

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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.

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Hobbes says that people instinctively join each other and formulate security pacts that provide security for each one. This universal fear and sense of security will force them to leave the natural state where every war is against everyone. In other words, Hobbes says that humans are creating sovereign states not on the basis of their intellect, but on instinct. They allow social contracts to each other and create a sovereign government capable of protecting them from foreign and domestic enemies and hindering

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In his book entitled Leviathan, Hobbes expounded on his firm belief in the necessity and efficacy of an absolutist government. Hobbes believed that people were naturally "quarrelsome and turbulent," and that in order to maintain a lawful and peaceful society, they gave over their freedom to a ruler with unlimited sovereignty. His principal reasoning was that any questioning of governmental actions would provide an opening for ensuing chaos.

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Hobbes developed the ‘social contract theory’, which is the idea that civilians give up some of their freedom and liberty for protection from the leader. This concept, which was used during Hobbes’s time, is still a part of the government today. Hobbes brings down this concept in his world famous book, Leviathan. A picture of a ‘giant’ monarch holding onto a tiny world is used to describe his version of the social contract. The drawing depicts the trade of freedom for safety.

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Hobbes was an English philosopher, known through out the world as the author of “Leviathan” which is regarded as one of the earliest examples of the social contract theory. His writings were greatly influenced by the

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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.

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The first interesting discussion about the idea of the decision from citizens to accept the rules of the law can be found in Platon and Socrates thoughts, but Thomas Hobbes it is seen as the philosopher who firstly analyzed the modern Social Contract perspective. Hobbes´ theory generally it is divided in two sections: the human behavior or motivation and his social contract theory, burn from the idea of state of nature, which means in his own words “the liberty that each man has to make his own decisions about how to use his own power for the preservation of his own nature—i.e. his own life—and consequently the liberty· of doing anything that he thinks is the aptest”. At the same time, Hobbes built the theory of Subjectivism to explain how humans are self-interested, as we pursue our individual best interest, so our motivation is based on the desire to improve our situation, and generally satisfy our own, individually subjective desires as possible. In addition, Hobbes argues that we are rational. In his idea, we have the capacity to identify our desires as efficiently and maximally as possible, but we do not evaluate our outputs.

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