Hobbes

Key ideas

Ordered society should balance the human need to lead a free life

Humans are needy, vulnerable, and easily lead astray in attempts to understand the world around them

when was Levithan written

1651

what’s going on in 1651

Oliver Cromwell’s army destroy the Royalist force and the English Civil war is won by Cromwell

During the enlightenment - rational thought triumphs over religious doctrine

The violence Hobbes saw during the war inspired him to argue that sovereign was needed to protect against war

what was Hobbes view on the state of nature

He believed that human’s instinctive desire for power would turn the state of nature into one in constant fear of war

but he also believed that this would end when rational individuals realised that it was safer to sacrifice their rights and freedoms for safety and order

What does a Hobbesian social contract look like and what is Levithan

Humans would sacrifice all rights but that of self-defence and totally submit to a state of absolute authority (this is what Hobbes calls Levithan)

Hobbes quote about Humans being inherently egotistical

"For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves."