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Absolutism and Leviathan II : The Sovereign

Absolutism and Leviathan II : The Sovereign. Thomas Hobbes. Overview. Laws of Nature Contracts and Justice The Need for a Sovereign The Sovereign’s Power. Hobbes’ Laws of Nature. Seek peace, and defend yourself by all available means.

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Absolutism and Leviathan II : The Sovereign

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  1. Absolutism and Leviathan II: The Sovereign Thomas Hobbes

  2. Overview • Laws of Nature • Contracts and Justice • The Need for a Sovereign • The Sovereign’s Power

  3. Hobbes’ Laws of Nature • Seek peace, and defend yourself by all available means. • To the extent necessary for peace and self-defense, give up the right to everything and settle for only as much liberty against others as you would allow them against yourself. • When you give up a right, it becomes your duty not to hinder those to whom it is given up.

  4. Contracts • A contract is a mutual transferring of a right. • I give you whatever claim I might have to X, and you give me your claim to Y. • A contract not immediately fulfilled is a covenant; at least one of the people must perform later. • Covenants are void when • Both parties are to perform later, but • There is no one powerful enough to force compliance.

  5. Justice • Another Law of Nature: Perform your covenants. (Without this, covenants would be vain and we would be stuck with the war of all against all.) • Injustice is the violation of covenants • Whatever is not unjust is just. • This is why there is no justice/injustice in the State of Nature: There are no covenants there.

  6. The Need for a Sovereign • For there to be Covenants, there must be someone powerful enough to compel compliance. • “Covenants without the sword are but words.” • There needs to be an arbitrator to settle whether covenants have been fulfilled. • Someone must “over-awe” everyone to maintain peace. • The Sovereign makes it possible to obey the laws of nature safely.

  7. The Sovereign’s Power • Everyone makes a covenant with everyone else to submit completely to the sovereign. • The sovereign acts on behalf of all, with their authorization, to promote their peace and security. • The power of the sovereign is not limited. Any limitation of it would be like a return to the State of Nature.

  8. Review • Hobbes thinks reason shows us certain “laws of nature,” concerning self-preservation. • To escape the State of Nature, we need to be able to trust one another in covenants, but that requires a further power to enforce them. • The sovereign, who enforces covenants and prevents the war of all against all, has unlimited power.

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