Thomas Hobbes Notes

Robert Filmer defended the ancient regime, arguing for its rationality and legitimacy.
He grounded his defense in tradition and the Bible, asserting the divine origin of monarchy.
Filmer posited Adam as the first king and cited original sin to justify natural subjection, thus legitimizing monarchy.
He opposed challenging the monarchical system, viewing it as divinely ordained.
Filmer lived during the English Civil War, a conflict between the monarchy and Parliament.
Filmer supported the monarchy (royalist) against the Parliament, viewing the latter as a demonic challenge to God's order.
Filmer argued that political authority stems from land ownership and that hierarchy is natural and must be preserved.

In 1776, the Parliament of Paris, a gathering of European aristocrats and nobles, declared the ancient regime justifiable due to new ideas challenging the status quo.
The declaration asserted that God established an unequal distribution of strength and character, resulting in necessary inequality within civil order.
The Parliament of Paris's declaration argued that the hierarchical class system was divinely ordained and natural, with each class providing specific services:
- Clergy: Education, religious observance, and charity.
- Nobility: Defense of the state and counsel to the sovereign (monarch).
- Commoners: Taxes, industry, and physical labor.
The declaration aimed to reinforce the legitimacy of the traditional social order amid emerging challenges.
The need for such a declaration suggested underlying challenges and brewing tensions within the ancient regime.

Thomas Hobbes sought to re-examine the ancient regime with a different approach than previous thinkers.
Hobbes and Robert Filmer were contemporaries who viewed the world differently.
Thomas Hobbes a political theorist, wrote "Leviathan", considered a seminal work in political theory.

Hobbes, of common birth, lived through the turbulent English Civil War, which profoundly shaped his thinking.
Hobbes is considered an early modern thinker, with a perspective closer to contemporary understandings of the world.
Hobbes was a materialist, believing everything is made of real substance.
He controversially argued that even God was made of material substance.
Hobbes's views led to criticism and accusations of atheism and heresy.
Hobbes questioned tradition and authority, unlike thinkers like Robert Filmer.

Hobbes challenged explanations based solely on tradition and religious authority, seeking alternative methodologies.
Hobbes's works were controversial, leading to him being seen as an enemy by religious thinkers.
The English Parliament, according to legend, prohibited Hobbes from writing on human conduct due to his radical ideas.
Hobbes aimed to explain the world and political structure without relying on tradition, as articulated in "Leviathan".

Hobbes advocated for using reason to understand his era, rejecting tradition and religious authority.
Hobbes, similar to the beginning exercise in the course, emphasized understanding human nature before government.
Hobbes proposed three critical propositions regarding human nature:
- Self-interest: Humans are fundamentally driven by self-interest, not necessarily sinfulness.
- Power, Greed, and Vainglory: Self-interest drives the pursuit of power, greed, and vainglory (vanity).
- Reason: Capacity to use reason, but often used to pursue more power, goods and vainglory.

Hobbes posited that individuals, left to their own devices, seek power, are greedy, and desire recognition of their status.
Hobbes stated that the actions of rulers are driven by an unending struggle for power, goods, and glory, not religious ideals.
Hobbes viewed appeals to justice and dignity as smokescreens used by the powerful to blind the weak to their true motives.
Hobbes argued that wars are fought for the powerful seeking more power, goods, and glory, rather than for justice or dignity.
The second key component is the capacity to use reason, which sets humans apart from animals.
Hobbes emphasized that all individuals are more or less equal in physical ability and vulnerability.

Hobbes, clarified that by equality he meant that everyone is more or less physically equal in their ability to be killed.
Hobbes stated that all men must die and have the same vulnerabilities. It's these common vulnerabilities that cause humans to be equal.
Acknowledging our equal physical makeup and vulnerabilities makes all human beings equal in terms of physical ability.
Hobbes used those three propositions (self-interest reason and equality) to define human nature.

Hobbes introduced the idea of the "state of nature" as the natural condition of mankind before civil society and government.
Hobbes questioned what the state of nature would look like given human nature (self-interest, reason, equality).
Hobbes, in essence, asked what human beings would be like without government.
Hobbes suggests, a world with no civil society and no government because no one would be able to trust anyone since everyone would be at war with each other.
The state of nature is always a state of scarcity that is based on his own observations and experiences.
Scarcity, fear, uncertainty, and self-preservation would prevail in the state of nature.

Hobbes posited that in the state of nature, each person would have a right to everything, leading to a "war of all against all," where life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Hobbes is saying you can't love your enemy because this behavior would be irrational and self-destructive so the battle will go to the strong and deceitful
Hobbes argued that traditional Christian morality would be irrational and self-destructive in the state of nature.
The question then is, is the state of nature a good place to live? What do you do if you find yourself there?
Hobbes would argue find yourself a weapon and ways to survive, that would be the rational thing to do.

Hobbes argued that the state of nature is unacceptable, leading rational individuals to give up some rights and submit to an authority to form a civil society.
This authority, or sovereign, would establish law and order in exchange for the people's submission.
Hobbes concluded that the sovereign must be all-powerful and indivisible to maintain law and order.
Hobbes believed that a divided government would lead to conflict, advocating for a unified, powerful sovereign.
Hobbes is credited with developing the first social contract theory.
The people in the state of nature will give up some of their rights to this powerful sovereign in exchange for protection. Essentially surrendering personal freedoms and rights for a level of safety.
Hobbs makes the case he's explained the world without relying on tradition or religious authority because reason explains everything.

Hobbes used reason to explain the world, advocating for a monarchy to prevent lawlessness or civil war.
Hobbes's most important insight was that political authority comes from the people, not God, demonstrated through reason.
Hobbes refuted the idea of divine right to rule, arguing it was nonsense.
Hobbes's theory is considered the first social contract theory in the modern era.
Hobbes proposed that the power of the government derives from the people and the sovereign rules by the consent of the majority.