Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
"Leviathan," written by Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century, presents a foundational text in political philosophy that explores the structure of society and legitimate government. Hobbes employs a scientific and mathematical approach to political ethics, positing that human nature, in its primitive state, is characterized by competition and self-interest, resulting in a chaotic environment he famously described as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Central to Hobbes's argument is the concept of the social contract, where individuals collectively agree to surrender certain freedoms to a sovereign authority in exchange for security and order. This authority, ideally embodied in an absolute monarchy or a centralized government, is justified on the grounds of self-preservation and the avoidance of violent death, which Hobbes views as the ultimate common evil.
Hobbes's rejection of divine right and moral objectivism leads to a form of moral relativism, suggesting that individual values are shaped by personal experiences and desires. His work fundamentally challenges traditional notions of political legitimacy by advocating for a system grounded in rational and empirical reasoning rather than religious or conventional authority. Overall, "Leviathan" is a critical examination of the interplay between human nature, governance, and ethics, making it a pivotal text for those interested in the origins of modern political thought.
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Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
First published: 1651
Type of Philosophy: Ethics, political philosophy
Type of Ethics: Enlightenment history
Significance: This political philosophical work incorporated a rational, systematic study and justification of natural rights, sovereignty, and state absolutism, and logically deduced an ethical political theory from a scientific and mathematical investigation of human nature
The Work
The moral language utilized by Hobbes in his Leviathan was expressed by the precise vocabulary of geometry, empirical science, and physics. The mathematical and scientific study of politics adopted by Hobbes did not incorporate a value-free or ethically neutral perspective. Hobbes’s political ethical theory was grounded in a causal-mechanical and materialistic metaphysical theory. Hobbes’s mechanistic scientific model was explanatory of all existence, since the universe consisted of interconnected matter in motion. This complex political theory and set of ethical arguments were deduced from Hobbes’s pessimistic interpretation of human nature in the context of an original, or primitive, condition. It was in this highly unstable, anarchic, and violent state of nature that individuals competitively pursued their self-interests. Hobbes depicted with bleak realism “the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The political ethics in Leviathan were justified primarily by the natural human egoistic motivation of fear of violent death, and secondarily by the passions for power and material possessions. Therefore, self-preservation was the most fundamental natural right and was the central reason for individuals to leave the state of nature and enter into commonwealths. Hobbes’s articulation of the normative egalitarian principle of universal natural rights was expressed in conjunction with his radical rejection of the principle of the divine right of kings. Hobbes’s rejection of moral objectivism was articulated in conjunction with his moral relativism, which claimed that the diverse corporeal natures of individuals were explanatory of the multiplicity of value judgments. Moral judgments were identified by a particular individual’s appetites and aversions, or mechanical movements toward or away from material objects. There was no summum bonum, or universal absolute common good, although the common evil to be avoided was violent death.
Hobbes expressed a political theory of authority that was justified by means of scientific, rational, and logical arguments, in lieu of traditional theories of political legitimacy based upon convention, theology, or the divine right of kings. Citizens of Hobbes’s prescribed commonwealth were bound by a social contract or by the superior power of the sovereign to obey all the government’s commands, regardless of the moral content of such commands or the intention of the sovereign. Hobbes’s core assumption of the natural insecurity of human life was linked to his prescription of an absolute monarchy or a highly centralized parliamentary body as the most desirable form of government.
Bibliography
Dietz, Mary G., ed. Thomas Hobbes and Political Theory. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990. A series of significant essays covering contemporary thinking on Hobbes, issued from the Benjamin Evans Lippincott symposium “The Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, 1599-1988,” held at the University of Minnesota in 1988.
Johnston, David. The Rhetoric of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986. An important postmodern reading of Leviathan.
Mace, George. Locke, Hobbes and the Federalist Papers: An Essay on the Genesis of the American Political Heritage. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979. A controversial work in that Mace argues that The Federalist reflects a more Hobbesian than Lockean view, and also that Hobbes was, indeed, the greater thinker of the two. Places both Locke and Hobbes in the context of the founding of the United States.
Macpherson, C. B. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Macpherson argues that both Hobbes and Locke reflected the possessive individualist premises of emerging capitalist society, mistaking these premises for eternal principles of human nature. The book, therefore, constitutes a critique of Hobbes’s “realism” about human nature.
Martinich, A. P. A Hobbes Dictionary. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 1995. One in a series of invaluable Blackwell Philosophic Dictionaries.
Rogers, Graham Alan John, ed. Perspectives on Thomas Hobbes. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1988. A collection of essays published in association with the important fourth centenary Hobbes conference organized by the British Society for the History of Philosophy.
Sorrell, Tom. The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996. An essential reference book by a leading British Hobbes scholar.
Sorrell, Tom. Hobbes. London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul, 1986. A useful introduction to the thought of Hobbes.
Wolin, Sheldon. The Politics of Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960. A popular and stylish textbook on the history of political philosophy with a lengthy chapter on Hobbes. He is seen as a prophet of modern society, in which impersonal rules and competition between interests have come to replace notions of a close-knit political community.