The liviathan
In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes asserts that the ideal form of government is composed of an omnipotent Sovereign, whose only innate responsibility to his subjects is to prevent civil war, which Hobbes feels is the natural state in which man would live without government. The Sovereign, he claims, is appointed by the people of a nation as their agent to maintain domestic order. Furthermore, Hobbes maintains that "because every Subject is by this Institution Author of all the Actions, and Judgments of the Soveraigne (sic) Instituted; it followes (sic), that whatsoever he doth, it can be no injury to any of his Subjects; nor ought he to be by any of them accused of Injustice" (92). This rationale makes sense by itself; however, Hobbes contradicts his own reasoning. He also asserts, "But if there be none that can give the Soveraigntie (sic), after the decease of him that was first elected; then has he power, nay he is obliged by the Law of Nature, to provide, by establishing his Successor, to keep those that had trusted him with the Government, from relapsing into the miserable condition of Civill (sic) warre (sic)" (101). The former quotation suggests that a sovereign's authority is derived from the fact that he was put into power as
Along with a substantial number of other powers, Hobbes ascribes to the totalitarian sovereign "the Right of making Warre (sic), and Peace with other Nations" (94). This power gives the sovereign unlimited domain over the life and death of his subjects. However, before introducing the notion of an omnipotent sovereign, The Leviathan outlines certain inalienable human rights. The first of these states, "The right of nature ... is the Liberty each man hath, to use his own power, as he will himselfe (sic), for the preservation of his own Nature; that is to say, of his own life; and consequently, of doing any thing, which in his own Judgement (sic), and Reason, hee (sic) shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto" (66). Hobbes has thus presented another conundrum: how can a human being be expected to cede his inalienable right to protect his own life from death in battle? The argument offered in The Leviathan is that since the sovereign represents the people, when he commands a subject to go to war, the command is equivalent to the subject determining for himself that he should go to war. Therefore, his right "to use his own power, as he will himselfe (sic), for the preservation of his own Nature", has not been violated. However, since after only a century of a nation's existence, its sovereign can no longer be considered an agent of the people due to the fact that no living person had any say in the appointment of the sovereign, a command by the sovereign is clearly not equivalent to an individual's own wishes. Therefore, the power of the sovereign to declare war and thus infringe upon the primary "right of nature" of his subjects, is null and void. Hobbes's initial assertion in The Leviathan is that without a sovereign
Some topics in this essay:
Law Nature,
Peace Nations,
Judgments Soveraigne,
Thomas Hobbes,
civil war,
agent people,
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Furthermore Hobbes,
preservation own nature,
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war hobbes,
sovereign power,
war nation,
own nature,
omnipotent sovereign,
sovereign appointed,
judgement sic reason,
hee sic conceive,
sic reason hee,
reason hee sic,
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Approximate Word count = 1169
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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