Hobbes; Leviathan

Hobbes; Leviathan

Hobbes wrote the Leviathan and divided it into four different sections. For sake of brevity, I will only discuss the second book in, which Hobbes discusses the Commonwealth. He, like Rousseau, holds up the idea that the people of a society are better off by joining the social contract, which all humans are unintentionally apart of. In Book II, Hobbes asserts that there must be some form of leadership, which holds the people together and keeps them from following their natural instincts to gain power and use it in a malicious way. The contract only works because when a government is set up and laws are put in place, there are punishments, which make the citizens afraid to act out of line, thus making a more peaceful place for everyone.

The Leviathan comes from the Hebrew word for "sea monster" however; in Hobbes context it is used as an allegory to represent something close to perfection. The Leviathan represents the man or men, which form the perfect government that the people give up their rights to be a part of. Hobbes calls the coming together of all the people, the commonwealth, thus making it the most important. Without this commonwealth peace cannot be achieved and civil war will continue. An analogy that Hobbes also uses is one, which makes the soul of the body similar to the Leviathan i.e. the perfect government. Further into the book, when he talks about liberty, he says that when the government stops looking out for the people and providing for them, then they have lost their freedom. This is when the soul has left the body, because there is no longer freedom within the body. Thus, the commonwealth has fallen apart and there is no longer a social contract for the people to subject themselves to the rule of the law.

Hobbes notes that there are two ways of achieving this commonwealth. "One by natural forceÐ'... The other is when men agree amongst themselvesÐ'..." Within this sovereign state, there are certain guidelines, which Hobbes argues that people ought to give their sovereign state. They are as follows: "The subjects cannot change the form of government. Sovereign power cannot be forfeited. No man can without injustice protest against the institution of the sovereign declared by the major part. The sovereign's actions cannot be justly accused by the subject. Whatsoever, the sovereign doth is unpunishable