Thomas Hobbes Leviathan

In the 17th century, Europe was facing a crisis. As a community primarily organized under religion, Europe faced constant religious wars. As a result, there was a need for a new organization. A new basis of shared understanding where everyone could agree upon. This is where English man Thomas Hobbes comes in. As a philosopher of the time, Hobbes writes for a new common ground. Instead of being organized under religion, he argues that the community should be organized under science. Thomas Hobbes writes the Leviathan, a book detailing the psychology of man. Through the book, he explains the political and ethical implications in man’s natural and civil state. Hobbes describes man as materialistic and individualistic. He writes that the world

A right that comes with liberty or the absence of external impediments. Essentially, the right of nature is the right for man to use power to preserve human will, which is motion created in the body through thought (a mechanical process). In the civil world, man has the law of nature. The law of nature is a general rule discovered through reason. It is man’s main goal, his self-preservation. Hobbes believes that reason is thought that marks the sense in a logical way. In his natural state man has the right to do what he wants, but since man lives in a community his natural state would only bring war. This war would subsequently bring his death. It is this fear of death that man must give up his right of nature. By giving up his right of nature man then must follow the law of nature. These laws of nature are derived not from religion, but from the science of moral

Through cause and effect, man accumulates knowledge. This knowledge produces a specific idea of good and bad that is individual to man. Man will choose to do things that cause him happiness because he then obtains what he desires. Obtaining what he desires leads him to power. For man, happiness and power are positively correlated. What one man wants might be different from another. It may cause the unhappiness or loss of power of another man. All men are equal. They have the equal capability to threaten another man’s power. Because of these factors, man has a natural state of violence. Their need for power leads to war. But man has a stronger desire for self-preservation. Their fear of death pushes them for peace. This idea of peace makes man then give up his rights of nature, which is that he can do whatever he wants, to a sovereign authority. This authority then becomes a representation of the rights of man. The authority is to keep the peace through fear and man then can live together and live