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 ...
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the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of people, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
In a state of nature, everyone would be equal but although equal, everyone would want to dominate everyone else. In turn, this generates a feeling of constant fear for survival making people violent and threatening on a continual basis. In other words, survival, or self-preservation, is the main driving force of all human beings. When two men met, they would either, have to fight or flee, in a state of nature. In conjunction with the wanting of dominance over others or the fear of others domination of oneself, men will also fight in a state of nature for glory, honour and reputation. Although at first glance ...
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for the sovereign to use with the assumption that the sovereign will use it for the benefit of everyone. According to Hobbes, having an absolute sovereignty is the only way for war to end. He also believes that the sovereign's actions should not be subject to the legal control of anyone, therefore giving him complete unrestricted power that has no limits or constraints. Another point that Hobbes makes for having a sovereign is that all people are incapable of agreeing on a common set of rule and regulations. A sovereign eliminates this problem as he decides what is right or wrong about everything. The sovereign literally decides on what is good and bad, just and unjust and ...
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"Hobbes And Sovereignty." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 13 Feb. 2007. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hobbes-And-Sovereignty/60264>
"Hobbes And Sovereignty." Essayworld.com. February 13, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hobbes-And-Sovereignty/60264.
"Hobbes And Sovereignty." Essayworld.com. February 13, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hobbes-And-Sovereignty/60264.
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