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Thomas Hobbes Leviathan Essay

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If someone told you that god will send you to hell if you do not submit yourself to his rule, would you believe it? The existence of a god, an all powerful being of the universe, was unpersuasive to people who would doubt his power and continue to disobey authority. Not only of the governance of divine right, but also parliamentary and presidential systems where individuals are elected would people question why they should listen and obey their leaders. Thomas Hobbes suggested an argument that may persuade those who are skeptical of the ones in power. In 1651, Hobbes published the “Leviathan”, which argued that without a social contract between people, life would be filled with violence and everything would be in chaos. A social contract must …show more content…

In Chapter 13, Hobbes states that “[f]rom this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our ends. And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end... endeavour to destroy or subdue one another... [O]thers may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossess and deprive him, not only of the fruit of his labour, but also of his life or liberty.” The perception in the state of nature, how the quality and belief of quality, is precisely what contributes to the reason why people fight amongst each other. If people are to view themselves as equals, then naturally they would believe they deserve others’ rewards and benefits as well. Especially more so if they view themselves as the deserving, perceiving other people as the diminished. People could potentially act out, and enter into a state of war, thus, causing constant fear and agitation. The state of nature is the reason why individuals are unable to accumulate the means of survival as it is self-destructive. Unless laws exist, people cannot be blamed until it is established, and none of these laws can be agreed on initially as everyone thinks they should establish the laws themselves, therefore no law can be made until they trust the person that shall make

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In chapter 19 of Leviathan Thomas Hobbes discusses the different kinds of commonwealths and explains why he believes a monarchy is the best form of government. A few of the points he makes about why he believes this are: the monarchs interests are the same as the people, the monarch is more consistent than a democracy, and monarchy is more stable because the monarch can set up arrangements for the succession of power. In my opinion, these points (and the other points he makes) would only work if the people are lucky enough to have the right person as their sovereign. Monarchs in the past haven't always had the same interests as their people, they are just as likely to do things that hurt their people such as the events that lead to the French

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965 Words | 4 Pages

Hobbes believed that “it is not possible for people to have both freedom and peace, since the state of freedom is a state of unlimited greed and war.” (Document C). i believe that hobbes is right about how there are many selfish people and if it came down to you or them, who would you choose? It is most likely that one chooses to save themselves because at a certain time it comes down to survival. Hobbes thought that we should have a ruler such as a king or queen because “democracy- allowing citizens to vote for government leaders- would never work.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Hobbes believed if there was no government every man will fight against one another for power. To stop the fighting the people form a government to make peace. “To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust” (doc 2). This quote is saying that without laws or any form of government people will fight each other. And

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1541 Words | 7 Pages

He first explains how nature made men equal, though each might differ in physical strength, weaker men have stronger mentalities. If two men want a similar object that cannot be shared, then they become enemies. Some do it for fear, but others battle for pleasure. Hobbes establishes three principles for fighting: competition, diffidence, and for glory. Competition is essential for men to gain what they desire.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

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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179 Words | 1 Pages

In the introduction of chapter four in Thomas Hobbes' book The Leviathan, the excerpt begins with the admiration and recognition of the printing press. However, this is short noted as he begins to exclaim the importance of letters which gives literature its true purpose and connotation. Despite not having an exact origin of who utilized them first, he strongly believes that when comparing the two, letters holds more of significance. Additionally, he the expresses that letters get their true power in words in which they are articulated in speech. By using the “organs” of speech within the mouth, memorization of characters and their context can both be recalled in the past and applied in the future.

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1591 Words | 7 Pages

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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169 Words | 1 Pages

In chapter 11 of Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes presents God as the cause of things that before had not a cause. His concept of “God” is similar to that of Descartes; God is an eternal entity larger than man’s mind can fathom. As chapter 12 unfolds, Hobbes puts this conceptual God in practice as he attributes Him to the beginning of our materialistic world. God is the “First Mover,” created by mankind’s anxiety about the future. Thus, religion came to be because of this fear that compelled them to blame someone or something to their fortunes.

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2000 Words | 8 Pages

Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Discourse on Inequality and Social Contract each attempt to explain the rise of and prescribe the proper management of human society. At the foundation of both philosophies is the principle that humans are asocial by nature, a precept each philosopher interprets and approaches in a different way. Hobbes states that nature made humans relatively “equal,” and that “every man is enemy to every man.” Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” he says, and “every man has right to everything.” Rousseau outlines primitive asocial man having “everything necessary for him to live in the state of nature” from “instinct alone,” and being “neither good nor evil.”

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1437 Words | 6 Pages

Hobbes viewed state of nature as a state of war. According to Hobbes, in a state of nature, there is no right to property because no one affords another that right. He stated that property and possessions would inevitably cause men to become enemies. Hobbes believes that people have equal physical and mental ability to harm, and that people will do so for three reasons - competition, difference, and glory. " so that in the state of nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel, first, competition; secondly, difference; thirdly, glory" (Hobbes 2008, p.85).

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Humans learned the hard way that conflicting interests can become a threat to their own survival. The strong started imposing their will by force and violence upon the weak to serve their own interests. The weak feared

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1881 Words | 8 Pages

Thomas Hobbes has been famous for his philosophies on political and social order. In many of his scholastic works, he maintains the position that in the presence of a higher authority the duty of the rest of mankind is to simply obey. The discourse on this essay will focus on his views expressed in his book The Leviathan. In this book Hobbes’ views are fundamentally entrenched in his description that in a society with no higher authority life would be nasty, short and brutish (?) .This essay will engage in discussion by first laying out the conceptual arguments of anarchy and the human state of nature.

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1140 Words | 5 Pages

While Hobbes also states that the human nature does not allow for the people to live in peace and to pursue common goals since “here are very many that think themselves wiser and abler to govern the public better than the rest” (Hobbes 3). respectively, there always exists the notion of competition, and if there is no possibility to reach consensus over the issue, there is the need for establishing an authority. This is the reflection of the social contract idea in the work by Hobbes as far as the author is concerned that only through common action and goals the society is able to function without problems and conflicts. Nevertheless, even though, in contrast to Machiavelli, Hobbes suggests the way of getting power that is based on agreement rather than on power and intellectual games, their ideas regarding the need for a strong ruler who would be able to establish the order in the society is rather similar, even though in one case this task is taken by a person himself and in the other case delivered by the

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1351 Words | 6 Pages

Hobbes holds that “it is impossible to subjugate a man without first having placed him in the position of being unable to do without another.” Thus, the lack of organizational interdependence in primitive society prevents inequality. Similarly, the lawlessness of early society makes conflict impossible: war “can exist neither in the state of nature, where there is no stable property.”

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1084 Words | 5 Pages

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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