Comparing Hobbes And Machiavelli's Theories Of Knowledge

When comparing Hobbes,’ Sandel’s and Machiavelli’s viewpoints regarding which of Aristotle’s three main categories of knowledge is the most significant for establishing good political systems or making good political decisions, one must consider what each theorists considers to be a good political system and create a link between the two. The most important category of knowledge for establishing and making good political systems for Aristotle is practical knowledge, the purpose of politics is to produce good, virtuous citizens, the law promotes just actions, purpose of legislators is to establish good laws. The most important category of knowledge for Hobbes is scientific knowledge, the absolute sovereign represents the commonwealth of its citizens, the absolute sovereign must uphold their self preservation, and all laws
The text states, “be the proclaimed author of everything that their existing sovereign does and judges fit to be done….nothing the sovereign does can wrong any of his subjects, nor ought any of them to accuse him of injustice.” (Hobbes, 2004, p. 80) Hobbes believes that to avoid the state of nature, every man versus every man, an absolute sovereign must govern the people to ensure there are no disagreements. According to Hobbes the absolute sovereign is the starting point of all laws and is given this power by the citizens, the text states “the authority that has been given to ‘this man’ by every individual man in the commonwealth, he has conferred on him the use of so much power and strength that people’s fear of it enables him to harmonize and control the wills of them all.” The sovereign was chosen to represent the will of the people, and knows what is best for