Sidra Aadil

Anum Qadri

Nabia Ghias Sheikh

Zainab Dar

Fatima Javed

Warda Tariq

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Social Contract of Hobbes• Hobbes’ forms of Government• Monarchy• Leviathan

Book 1 Law of Nature Commonwealth Book 2

• Hobbes’ individualism• Hobbes’ human nature• Consequences of Social Contract• Criticism

SOCIAL CONTRACT OF HOBBES:

Hobbes’ Theory of Social Contract first time appeared in Leviathan in 1651 during the civil war in Britain. According to Hobbes, prior to social contract man lives in state of nature; chaotic conditions of constant fear.

Man has natural desire for security and order. For this, they surrender their freedom and rights to some authority by a contract who must command obedience.

This lead to emergence of monarchy as mightiest authority to protect and preserve their lives and property. Moral obligations are placed on sovereign and he will be bound by natural law. Hobbes is a supporter of absolutism. He upheld the principle of might is right.

“Law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign and the Government without sword are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all”

- Hobbes

Hobbes says humans are necessarily and exclusively self-interested.

All men pursue only what they perceive to be in their own individually considered best interests. Men are drawn to that which they desire and repelled by that to which they are averse. They are reasonable and can pursue their desire efficiently.

They ought to be willing to submit themselves to political authority.

Hobbes impels subjects to surrender all their rights and vest all liberties in the sovereign for preservation of peace, life and prosperity of the subjects.

It is in this way the natural law became a moral guide or directive to the sovereign for preservation of the natural rights of the subjects.

All real law is civil law, the laws commanded and enforced by the sovereign and are brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the natural liberty of particular men, in such a manner, as they might not hurt but to assist one another and join against a common enemy.

Hence, Individualism, materialism, utilitarianism and absolutions are inter-woven in the theory of Hobbes.

HOBBES FORMS OF GOVERNMENT:

Hobbes in actual talked about three forms of government totally different from each other. Monarchy, Aristocracy and democracy are his main concern in specifically talking about the forms of government.

He classified and explained the concept of three forms of government in a way that when all the powers are vested in a man by the state he is said to be monarchic but at the same time when the powers are vested in assembly it is said to be democratic form of government at that point of time. And if specifically talks about power given to few persons it would be called as Aristocratic form of government.

He specifically talked about three forms of government and added no space for any further form of government; that he doesn’t believe in mixed form of government.

MONARCHY:

The preference he gave more was on the Monarchic government calling it as a best form of government.

Apart from Monarchy, He rather believed in that particular form of government which could bring up the peace and security in the country. In his explanation of the forms of government he rather was much against the division of the powers.

He believed the only division of the power between the Kings, Lords, and commons was responsible who could bring civil war and yet a source of destruction it was.

According to him, Monarchy guarantees stability and uniformity which actually helps in preventing from falling into any chaotic situation in any type of country having this particular form of government.

Whereas, he supported Monarchy with a fact that in a monarchic form of government the competition for the seat, offices and posts is less as compared to aristocracy and that of democracy. The major advantage he came up with was that the monarchs of any country have the same interests as that of the people.

LEVIATHAN:

Leviathan was written by Thomas Hobbes in 1651.

It is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.

Written during the English Civil War, Leviathan argues that civil peace and social unity are best achieved by the establishment of a commonwealth through social contract.

Hobbes’s ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power and granted absolute authority to ensure the common defense.

COMMONWEALTH:

In his introduction, Hobbes describes this commonwealth as an "artificial person" and as a body politic that mimics the human body.

The frontispiece to the first edition of Leviathan, which Hobbes helped design, portrays the commonwealth as a gigantic human form built out of the bodies of its citizens, the sovereign as its head.

Hobbes calls this figure the "Leviathan," a word derived from the Hebrew for "sea monster" and the name of a monstrous sea creature appearing in the Bible; the image constitutes the definitive metaphor for Hobbes's perfect government.

His text attempts to prove the necessity of the Leviathan for preserving peace and preventing civil war.

Book I of Leviathan contains the philosophical framework for the entire text, while the remaining books simply extend and elaborate the arguments presented in the initial chapters.

Hobbes describes human psychology without any reference to greatest good, which he considers superfluous and given the variability of human desires, there could be no such thing.

Book 2 of Leviathan details the process of standing the Leviathan, outlines the rights of sovereigns and subjects, and imagines the civil mechanics of the commonwealth.

Natural inclinations of men toward power impels them to break contracts, thus the basic social contract of the commonwealth must vest power in one central authority with power to punish those who break the contract.

LAW OF NATURE:

• Hobbes concludes his first law of nature that natural man, in

order to preserve life, must seek peace.

• The second law of nature follows upon the mandate to seek

peace.

• The third law of nature states that it is not enough simply to

make contracts, but that we are required to keep the contracts we

make.

• The fourth law of nature is to show gratitude toward those who

maintain the contract so that no one will regret having complied

with the contract.

• The fifth law states that we must be accommodating to others for

the purpose of protecting the contract and not quarrel over minor

issues.

HOBBES’ INDIVIDUALISM:

"The natural state of man's life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"

- Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes is generally identified as the most important direct predecessor of modern individualist philosophy. Hobbes has ascribed to all individuals natural liberty on the basis of which they are licensed to undertake whatever actions are necessary in order to preserve themselves from their fellow creatures.

Hobbes believed that the exercise of such natural liberty logically leads to unceasing conflict and unremitting fear so long as no single sovereign ruler exists to maintain peace.

Hence it can be summarized that the goal of Hobbes’ philosophy is simply survival.

HOBBES’ HUMAN NATURE:

Hobbes believed that human beings naturally desire the power to live well and that they will never be satisfied with the power they have without acquiring more power. He believes there usually succeeds a new desire such as fame and glory, ease and sensual pleasure or admiration from others. He also believed that all people are created equally. That everyone is equally capable of killing each other. Hobbes believed that the nature of humanity leads people to seek power.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY:

• The force of the sovereign is absolute. This is on account of the sovereign is the consequence of the agreement, not a gathering to the contract. The contract is unavoidable. Men surrendered all their rights to the sovereign.

• No force in the state ought to be permitted to test the sovereign. The sovereign is additionally no punishable. The sovereign is the sole judge to choose what is important for the peace and safeguard of his subjects. Power may be government in light of the fact that a ruler may give more noteworthy consistency in arrangement.

• Sovereign has the power to hear and choose all debates in regards to common or criminal laws.

• Sovereign has the power to announce war and close peace.

• Hobbes says that the subjects can delight in just those rights which the sovereign licenses. Freedom is the endowment of the sovereign. Liberty of the subject thus consisted in: 1. what the sovereign has permitted. 2. What the sovereign has not permitted and 3. The right of self-preservation which is retained by the people.

• There is stand out contract in Hobbes. This is an agreement entered into by the individuals among themselves. this agreement secured a ruler. There is no agreement between the individuals and the sovereign.

• Hobbes was attempting to accommodate a tyrant government with political power as got from the individuals. the individuals surrendered their common rights for the purpose of self-conservation. Accordingly, they needed to pay a substantial cost for peace.

CRITICISM:Gauthier, Kleinerman, and Van Mill have given the most famous critiques about Hobbes’ political philosophy.

• Logic versus Irrationality

• Curbing civil liberties

• Pessimistic ideas

• Anti Democratic

• Conception of limited resources

• Rejecting basic individual right

• Universalization of the appetites and aversions

• Contradiction

• Reality of a Leviathan