Preview

Thomas Hobbes: A Basis For Politics

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
123 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Thomas Hobbes: A Basis For Politics
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher of the 1600’s that tried to create a basis for politics. Having experienced the English civil war, Hobbes realized that the conflict was the result of human nature. Hobbes exclaimed that the world was full of greedy people and those who are selfless and care only for themselves. Without the government to maintain order, Hobbes said that there would be “a condition of war of everyone against everyone”. Hobbes noted that in order to stop this, the people would have to sacrifice their freedom for the government. In exchange, they gained law and order. He also notes that this sacrifice would allow the government to suppress any form of rebellion. Hobbes called this agreement the social contract.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The social contract theory is the belief that people are free and equal by natural right , and that this in turn requires that all people give their consent to be governed; espoused by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and influential in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Hobbes believed that a monarchial type of government was necessary to restrain humanity’s bestial tendencies because life without government was a “state of nature.” Stating that people will live like animals without rules. On the other hand, John Locke argued that the government’s major responsibility was the preservation of private property. He also denied the right that no king should govern but also that individuals were born with equal and natural rights.…

    • 4775 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hobbes believed in a social contract, an implicit understanding between government and governed. His ideal government would be an absolute monarchy that holds power like a leviathan, a sea monster. John Locke, also an English philosopher, believed that people…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hobbes added to the ideas of democracy by creating the idea that all men are born bad with an urge for war. He stated that in order to have a stable society, government would be required to strictly watch and govern each citizen. He writes that man should give down their power to a much bigger government in order to maintain a single power that can help control the masses. This bigger…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    but such a system would have to take for granted Hobbes’ values and rationality—it would not work ‘right out of the box’ as deontology or utilitarianism does; more on this later.…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Hobbes, an Enlightenment philosopher, claimed that mankind is naturally evil and selfish and will cause conflicts “if any two men desire the same thing, which they nevertheless cannot both enjoy” or have differing opinions, in order to gain more power so that they can freely pursue their selfish desires, especially “during the time men live without a common power” and “in that condition which is called war, every man against every man,” and are therefore incapable of self-governing. Hobbes’ position on human nature is easily observable; intolerance and bigotry causes violence and general public…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 18

    • 1729 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hobbes.
Thomas Hobbes. (1588-1679). ‘Born premature when mother heard of oncoming Armada.’ At 40, he took Euclid’s geometry as starting point to make mechanical model of universe (man and society). Mechanism (based on motion) was to greatly influence thinking over next few centuries. Witness to upheaval of civil war in England in 1640s. Fled to France. 1651. Publishes "Leviathan.”Hobbes sees state of nature sans government as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Promulgates absolute monarch thesis. Says people (wholly selfish) should escape chaos of everyday life, give up their freedom to ruler who guarantees peace and order. In his state Hobbes saw ruler as absolute with men having no right to rebel since this would break the social contract and be illogical.…

    • 1729 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The source argues that in the name of protecting civil liberties, the mass people have too much of a say over things, and that those strong leaders in power do not "get a chance to serve the common good." The ideology presented in the source is that a single, strong leader provides more stability than a democracy. The source presented advocates in favour of a collective, authoritarian form of government. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes would have supported the source by referring to society's need for a "leviathan" or centralization of power, since he believed that people were incapable of governing themselves. However, this source is not a complete rejection of the values and principles of liberalism as it still maintains democracy as the system of government used, and democracy is…

    • 1625 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hobbes would argue that the insurgents should not have rebelled, that they have no right that they deserve whatever punishment the Sovereign wants to give them. Hobbes would have said that if it was not for the rebels, the Sovereign would have been able to fight the Islamic State when they first started. After defeating this other Commonwealth, the Islamic State, the Syrian government could have worked to improve the situation for all its subjects. But now that the Commonwealth is in a State of War, the State of Nature exist and the Commonwealth known as Syria is no more. People will eventually want peace and this is when they are going to decide to create a new Commonwealth and choose a new Sovereign. Hobbes would argue that Monarchy would…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Hobbes, government is needed so that society will not collapse into violence due to humanity’s selfish desires and self-interest. Hobbes believes that humanity’s natural state is motivated by self-interest and will do everything they can to succeed in their endeavors. People will do whatever it takes to fulfill what their idea of ‘good ’is. When everyone acts this way it quickly devolves into chaos, war, and violence.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hobbes was a philosopher who saw humans as a purely physical being. He believed that all human actions can be explained through the motions in our bodies. According to Hobbes all feelings and emotions are a result of phantasms, our perception of the objects around us. This perception is a motion within our bodies and each person perceives these phantasms differently causing love, hate, desires, and what we think is good and bad. Every feeling that comes from ones perspective has a physical feeling, such as desires can cause certain pains and it is only human nature that one does whatever is needed in order to relieve those pains. Hobbes therefore sees humans as being able, by their state of nature, to take or do whatever necessary for themselves even if it shows no regard for the other people their actions may harm. This inevitably would end up in a fight for survival or “the war of all against all”. In order to prevent such a war from happening Hobbes thought it necessary that the individuals must promise each other to give up their right to govern themselves to the sovereign for the mutual benefit of the people. This sovereign then has absolute power to rule with no questions asked and not to only act on behalf of the citizens but to completely embody their will. In summation, Hobbes believed that society could only exist under power of the sovereign and that life in the state of nature is violent, short and brutish, as all men act on self-interest.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    David Hume is a renowned Philosopher that has shaped the ideas of cause and effect (causality) as we know them today. He suggested that true cause and effect relationship has to be the result of A causing B. The occurrence of B happening is contingent on the fact that A occurs before B, thus causing B to happen. Since he holds that this is the only rational way to conclude that one thing causes another to happen, he goes as far as to say that human beings will never know the exact cause that takes place in order for B to be the result. Hume comes to this conclusion because he maintains that there are secrete causes that cannot be observed by the human eye, thus it is impossible for humans to rationally conclude that one thing caused another…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In regards to Hobbes, he believed in the natural right of self-preservation. He believed that human beings are greedy and have unlimited desires; they overuse their individual judgments and act on instinct, rather than reasoned responses, which is why there is great insecurity and instability in the state of nature. Hobbes also came up with the social contract theory, which states that we give the power to one individual and in doing this, we lose some of our own rights for the good of society. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the social contract depends on our ability as a society to obtain a satisfactory balance between what we want and what we are prepared to give up for it (“The Human Project” 148). Hobbes argued for an autocracy because it would be a strong-central government and would have power over all issues. However, in order for the country to be politically and socially stable, we would have to give up not only some of our desires but most of our rights as well.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    <center><i>"Politics should be the application of the science Of man to the construction of the community" Explain this remark and discuss what reasons there might be for thinking it is not true</i></center><br><br>In this essay I intend to examine the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes, in particular their ideas relating to the science of man, and attempt to explain why their ideas prove that it is not possible to construct a science of man.<br><br>I will also briefly mention the philosophy of Donald Davidson in regards to a science of man.<br><br>The theories of Hobbes and the contemporary socio-biologists attempt to recognise how man works and on that basis build a society.<br><br>"Hobbes wished to be seen as the inventor of the science of politics" (Sorrell, p45) He went about this by looking at the psychology of man and discovering that man is a mechanism. Hobbes wanted to understand mechanics. He wanted to look at why men live the way that they do in society and therefore, breaks it down. By doing this he discovered that people are cogs in the social machine. Therefore he wants to examine this cogs to achieve an understanding of the social mechanism, and does this by looking at the psychology of the mind. <br><br>Hobbes is both an empirist and a materialist. Empirists believe that sense gives all knowledge. Generally, they do not believe in astrology, god, electrons etc. Their philosophy is summed up by saying that all things that give true knowledge can be sensed. Materialists believe that all things in existence are physical matter. In other words, the soul and the spirit do not exist.<br><br>Therefore Hobbes believes that thoughts are material, that they are caused by sense and vice versa.<br><br>Tom Sorrell suggests in his essay, entitled "Hobbes' scheme of the sciences", that rather than have knowledge of how the mechanics of the mind's passions work, a more successful way of gaining political knowledge is to understand what these…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thomas Hobbes claims that man’s life is brief and filled with loneness, nastiness, and cruelness. For that reason, he defines the state of nature to state of war. Furthermore, he asserts that this wretched state of human life can be ended when individuals agreed in a social contract. Through the social contract, he believes the absolute authority can protect individuals in exchange of giving up their right.…

    • 67 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hobbes feels that mans craving for power and natural state of war is controlled by the social contract, therefore maintaining mans existence.…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays