Western Political Thought---Thomas Hobbes

“Hobbes was in fact the first of the great modern philosophers who attempted to bring political theory into intimate relations with a thoroughly modern system of thought, and he stroke to make this system broad enough to account on scientific principles, for all the facts of nature, including human behavior both in its individual and social aspects.” (Sabine)

Thomas Hobbes was born near Malmesbury in 1588. He was the victim of broken home. His father, the Vicar of Westport, deserted his wife and children when Hobbes was still a boy. Hobbes received his early education in Wiltshire, a place in Malmesbury. At the age of fifteen years, he joined Oxford. He got the degree of graduation at the age of nineteen. His soul remained insatiate with the University education and found it worthless.

On leaving Oxford, he became tutor to the heir of William Cavendish who later on became Earl of Devonshire. His contact with royal family brought him into contact with most important personalities of the period. He left England during the horrors of civil war and was forced to take refuge in France, where he joined the supporters of royal absolutism. He lived for about twenty years in France whose autocratic Government appealed him considerably.

It was this period in which he wrote his master piece of work “The Leviathan”, published in 1651. He attacked the ancient institution of Papacy and also won disfavor from royalists. It was an important work of Hobbes which brought him immortal fame in the history of Western political thought.

Hobbes built up a systematic philosophy of state, taking his stand neither on tradition nor on theology but on his study of human nature. It was the crucial period when upholders of constitutional rule were fiercely fighting for the annihilation of the supporters of Divine Right of Kings. Hobbes saw the miserable condition of his beloved country and ardently advocated for the maintenance of authority and order, and he constructed a system of strong and responsible sovereign Government on the basis of the then very popular doctrine of social contract. Hobbes was, thus, as much a creature of his times as Machiavelli was. However he found a link between Renaissance and the Restoration.

Hobbes’s Conception of State of Nature

Hobbes was of the view, “The only basis of human action is a perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ends only in death. By nature man is selfish and egoistical. Every one is striving for the gratification of his appetites and these appetites are different from individual to individual because of physical constitution, education and experience."

Hobbes’s man lived originally in state of nature without the benefits of Government. All human actions were regulated by two things:

1.The instinct of self-preservation
2.Individual egoism

According to Hobbes, the state of nature was “a state of war of all against all in which the chief virtue of mankind were force and fraud.” There was no Government of civil laws to maintain peace and order, but a Government of fear, danger and coercion.

Hobbes said, “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war, as is of every man against every man. In such condition there is no place for industry because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, no use of commodities that may be imported by seas, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death.”

Logical Conclusions:
1.Hobbes was of the view that there was no distinction between right and wrong in the state of nature. Only force, deceitfulness and intimidation were the order of the day. The only slogan echoed “Kill when you can, usurp what you can.”
2.There can be no private property in the state of nature for possession of a thing depends upon the power of upholding it.

According to Hobbes, man undoubtedly wanted peace and tranquility; but his fear of others, his anxiety to retain what is already had and his never ending desire for self aggrandizement on the basis of ‘mine and mine’ led him to perennial conflict and anarchy in the state. Man is the state of nature becomes the slave and tool of impulses and passions. Later on man realized that peace had definitely more utility than constant was and fear of violent death brought man’s passions into line with his reasons.

Man could live in harmony and peace with one another either through fear of punishment or desire for profit. And this purpose could only be achieved by establishing a strong and stable Government capable of inspiring awe and fear by using harsh and arbitrary methods who disobey its laws and of giving attractive rewards to those who do conform.

Hobbes and Theory of Sovereignty

Hobbes’s sovereign was presented as a Mortal God vested with absolute and unchallenged power to rule over his subjects arbitrarily. He was the smasher of the regular channels of democracy, a way of life. Hobbes’s sovereign suffocated all the social and cultural communication between the people bringing about a reign of oppression and harshness.

Hobbes said, “By this authority, given him every particularly man in the wealth, he has the use of so much power and strength conferred upon him, that the terror thereof, he is enable to form the wills of them all to peace at home and mutual aid against their enemies abroad. And in him consists the essence of the Commonwealth which is one person, of which acts a multitude, by mutual covenants one with another have made themselves, every one the author, to the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he shall thinker expedient, for their peace and common defense.”

Features of Sovereignty

1.The sovereign is absolute and all powerful. His powers to frame laws of the land are not restricted by any human agency.

2.He is the singular law-making authority.

3.No condition, explicit or implicit, can be imposed on the sovereign, for his power is unlimited.

4.Subjects have no authority to call any explanation from the sovereign for his misdeeds. They have no right to threaten, to punish him, to banish or depose him.

5.The sovereign is the fountain of justice and honor.

6.The sovereign has full power to declare war against any country or nation whenever he likes.

7.Sovereignty is indivisible; inalienable and unpunishable.

8.The sovereign formulates laws regarding property and taxation etc, and he has full rights to allow or disallow freedom of speech to his subject.

9.The sovereign has to protect his people from internal disruption and external aggression for the preservation of peace and glory of the state.

10.If the sovereign ignores the pact, he can do so, because he is no party to the contract.


Types of Sovereignty

According to Hobbes the difference of commonwealths consist in the difference of the sovereign or the person representative of all and every one of the multitude and it is manifest, there can be put three kinds of commonwealth:

1.If the representative is one man, the commonwealth will be known as Monarchy.

2.If the representative is composed of an assembly, the state will be called a democracy.

3.When the representative is an assembly, but only a part of it, then it is called aristocracy.

Hobbes ardently favors monarchical form of Government. There must be an important monarch to serve the end for which the state is established. But a monarch without absolute power will utterly be failed for the attainment of his ideals. That is why; Hobbes is ranked as one of the great champions of absolute sovereignty.

Hobbes gives a perfect and most satisfactory theory of sovereignty which is all powerful authority within the state. It is absolute, unlimited, non-transferable and irrevocable. Hobbes excelled Machiavelli’s Prince, an evil genius in exalting political authority. Machiavelli had made politics independent of religion but Hobbes set politics above religion and ethics. The powers vested in sovereignty must be absolute, unlimited and all powerful.

Criticism

The political theory of Thomas Hobbes has been bitterly criticized on different grounds ever since this day.

1.The whole conception of social contract and an organized society resulting from it is unhistorical. There are no examples in history when Hobbes’s men gathered together and signed a contract for the formation of a civil society.

2.Hobbes portrays a dismal picture of the state of nature, which is far from satisfactory. He paints a darker side and completely ignores a brighter side of human nature. His picture reflects the evils of his man. He declares man selfish, solitary and brutish. But human nature has two essential aspects, good and bad. He always speaks of the badness of human nature.

3.Hobbes was of the view that the state of nature is a state of war, the war of all against all, in which the cardinal virtues are force and fraud. How could such a man go against his own nature and suddenly enter a “state not of war, but of peace, not of force and fraud but of right and justice.”

4.Hobbes says that there were no laws in the state of nature. This is baseless.

5.Hobbes’s sovereign appears to be the representative of the people, who follows public opinion and looks after public welfare. This is the only one aspect in which Hobbes has recognized the limitations of his Leviathan.

6.Hobbes did not foresee the distinction between the Government and the state. While the Government of a state might be replaced with another because of its corruption or inefficiency, the state as a reality remains intact and does not sink into lawless condition.

7.Hobbes appears to be a mixture of anarchy and absolutism. The only remedy to control of good behavior of men was the coercive power of the sovereign.

8.The Hobbesian system condemns the state for purely negative functions. It is sole function in the preservation of life and maintenance of order.

9.The civil society created by Hobbes is not much of a society. It is like a flock of cattle driven by the omnipotent Leviathan who sums up in himself the life of all and who is a universal regulator of thoughts and actions of all.

Hobbes was a materialist and rationalist to the core of his heart. His political philosophy indicated the absolute sovereignty of whatever Government happened to be in power. He bade people render unto Caesar and unto God whatever Caesar commanded. His state absorbed the will of all its members in matters secular and spiritual and it was wrong to will or act against it.

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