THOMAS HOBBES

(1588-1679)

Introduction

• Thomas Hobbes is one of the most colourful, controversial and important

figures in the history of western political
thought. His status as a great philosopher and
political thinker was not fully recognised until
the 19th Century.

• Thomas Hobbes was the greatest English

political thinker whose major emphases were
on peace, order, security, commodious life and
all-powerful Sovereign.

• He mastered a number of languages like Latin,

Greek, French, Italian and English.
• He was one of the chief exponents of the Social
Contract theory.
• Karl Marx acknowledged him as father of all of
us.
• In 1618, he was recruited into an aristocratic family of William Lord Cavendish
as a tutor and later became a secretary.

Life and times

• Hobbes was prematurely born in England at a time when the country was
threatened by the impending attack of the Spanish Armada.
• Hobbes was a witness to the great political and constitutional turmoil caused
by the English Civil War and his life and writings bear clear imprint of it.
• During 1640-1660, England found itself in a political upheaval which would
later be known as the English Civil War.
• Hobbes was a witness to the great political and constitutional turmoil caused
by the English Civil War and his life and writings bear a clear imprint of it.
• The political chaos was the direct result of controversies between the Crown

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 and the Parliament.
• Hobbes was against parliamentarian and supporting royalists (Crown Rule).
• In this horrific war the Royalists were defeated, and Charles I was executed at
the behest of the Parliamentary Army in 1649.
• This incident led to the creation of his understanding about a pessimistic view
of Human Nature.

Prominent work

De Cive (On the Citizen) 1642 Anticipation of theme of Leviathan

Leviathan or the Matter, 1651 Divided into 4 Part. It Contains Laws of Nature,
Social Contract Theory & Absolute Sovereign.

De Corpore (On the body) 1655 Also knows as the “Elements of law, natural

and politic”.

De Homine (On Man) 1658 Last one of the Hobbesian great trilogy (De

Cive, De Corpore, De Homine)

Behemoth: the history of causes 1681 Also known as The Long Parliament.
of civil wars of England

"The Leviathan is the greatest, perhaps the sole, masterpiece of political philosophy
in the English language”- Michael Oakeshott

• The Leviathan is Hobbes' most famous work. It is, however, not the only
important source for a complete understanding of Hobbes' ideas. This is not to
say that there is any fundamental discrepancy between Leviathan and other
works of Hobbes.
• There is only a difference in emphasis and style of presentation. The argument
is substantially the same; different books are devoted to illuminating the basic
theme in different ways.

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Hobbes’ Method

In order to understand human nature, Hobbes turned to the method of natural

science. He was inspired by Galileo’s work. He relied on ‘mechanical materialism’ for
analysing human behaviour.

Hobbes on Human nature

• Appetite is the driving force behind men’s struggle for power. In Hobbes’ view,
man is neither a social animal nor a political animal, but only an isolated beast
or a purely egoistic creature.
• He held that human beings are “matter in motion” to satisfy their desire;
seeking pleasure and avoiding pain and the continual fulfilment of their desire
is what Hobbes called as “felicity”.
• There are, Hobbes says, two kinds of motion in animals-vital motion and
voluntary motion. Circulation of blood, breathing, digestion, excretion are
examples of this vital motion. Voluntary motion is first "fancied in our minds"
and is caused by the impact of external stimuli on our sense organs. It either
aids or retards the vital motion and thus helps or hinders the existence.
• He differentiated human beings from animals as they possess Reason but no
individual reason is absolutely right, hence, he emphasizes on the need of an
Arbitrator or Judge for resolving disputes between the two parties.
• For him Self Preservation was the most common and important desire for all
human beings for which they were in constant quest for power. Therefore, life
is nothing but perpetual and relentless desire and pursuit for power according
to Hobbes.

The State of nature

• Introduced in Hobbes’ seminal work Leviathan (1651) as a condition that led to

formation of ‘commonwealth’(state/civil society)
• The State of Nature refers to a hypothetical condition before formation of the
state. It represents the interaction between human beings when there was no civil
law, state or political authority.
• In the absence of an effective external control (i.e., in the state of nature), men
behave according to their innate nature. They get driven by endless appetite to
grab everything within his reach. His self-concern blinds him to the needs of
others.
• Hobbes characterized State of Nature by perpetual struggle, conflict, constant
warfare and total insecurity as men were free to take whatever and rob
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 whomsoever they could. He also talks about concept of ‘natural equality’ here.
• Hobbes’s concept of state of nature envisages an atmosphere of extreme
insecurity for everyone. All men are potential enemies of each other. Thus, the
state of nature turns into a state of war of everyone against everyone. In such a
condition, life of man is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.
• Therefore, it was for the need of self-preservation which created a sense of duty in
the minds of human beings to form the state.

Natural laws

• Hobbes argues that there can be no morality or consciousness of duty or

obligation in the state of nature. Natural rights are, therefore, nothing more
than the natural powers of men, used to oppress others.
• According to Hobbes, the Laws of Nature prompted men to abandon the state
of nature and to establish law and government. Natural law persuaded the
human beings that they can fulfil their desires better if they exit the State of
Nature.
• Hobbes then lists 19 laws of nature, three of them being of utmost importance.

The social contract

The setting up of the state or civil society is accomplished through a ‘convenant’or a

mutual agreement between all men, that is the ‘social contract’. Through this
agreement, the sovereign (a man or an assembly of men) comes into position which
represents the supreme legal authority over the society.

According to Hobbes, the Social Contract is concluded among all the individuals
in the State of Nature “each with all and all with each” by setting up a Sovereign
authority who will ensure peace and security. By this contract every man gave up his
natural rights and power to a ‘common power’ who would keep them safe.

The sovereign is not a party to the contract. Acc. to Hobbes, the sovereign did not
even exist before the conclusion of the contract.

Hobbes held that contract was made by stating, “ I Authorize and gave up my rights
of governing myself to this man or this Assembly of men, on this, condition, that
thou give up thy right to him and authorize all his Actions in like manner”.

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The absolute sovereignty

Hobbes is regarded as the chief exponent of absolutism/ absolute sovereignty.

Hobbesian social Contract brought a Sovereign into existence whose powers were
undivided, unlimited, inalienable and permanent because he was the creation of the
will of the people.

As Hobbes develops an idea of Absolute Sovereign, he mentioned some import

feature of sovereign and contract:

 Sovereign power is undivided, unlimited, inalienable and permanent.

 Sovereign was result of the contract, thus, not a party to the contract.
 No right to revolution against the sovereign
 Contract was perpetual and irrevocable.
 Contract is mutually constructed by people and not a representation of divine
rights of king.

The Sovereign was result of the contract ,thus, not a party to the contract. Therefore,
all the Individuals in Society were the Subjects of Sovereign and he has no obligation
towards the subject.

In Hobbes word “This is the generation of that great Leviathan, or that Mortal God,
to which we own under the Immortal God, our peace and defense.” Hobbes sees
sovereign as a Monarch.

All the natural rights of men were surrendered to the Sovereign forever and cannot
be withdrawn otherwise men would revert back to the State of Nature.

Hobbes did not recognized people’s right to revolt or revolution and thus advocates
unlimited political obligation. The sovereign can provide security to men only
when he is powerful enough to curb all anti-social elements. He must be fully capable
of punishing all offenders because it is the fear of punishment which makes the
citizens law-abiding.

On liberty and self preservation

• Thomas Hobbes provided a modern understanding of Liberty by defining it as

the “absence of external impediments to motion”.
• He held that Individuals are free to do everything except those which the

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 Sovereign has forbidden by its laws. Therefore, Liberty is whatever the law
permitted and on whatever the law was silent.
• Therefore, the liberty of subject includes buying and selling their property,
trade, diet, institute their children, rights to private beliefs and conscience,
etc.
• According to him, the Sovereign was having absolute authority over the
subject but there was only one limitation to his authority namely, the right of
self-preservation because the basic motive behind total submission of power
was for Self-Preservation and if the Sovereign is not able to protect the life of
the individual, then the individual has the right to resist the Sovereign.

In the words of Hobbes,

‘Fear and I were born twins together'.

‘Curiosity is the lust of mind’.

‘It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law’.

‘Force and Fraud are in War the two cardinal virtues’.

‘In the State of Nature, Profit is the measure of right’.

‘No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger
of violent deaths: and the life of man, Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short ‘.

PYQ- CUET PG 2023