In 1651, Thomas Hobbes published the book Leviathan or the Matter, Form, and Power of the Common Wealth of the Ecclesiastical and Civil. Leviathan, a Leviathan, a sea or dragon. in the Old Testament.
In 1648, a few years before Hobbes published Leviathan, many of the major powers in Europe signed the Peace of Westphalia. One of the colonists of these various treaties was that all parties recognize the Peace of Augustana which was first made in 1555. The Peace of Augustana was essentially a treaty based on the principle whose region is its religion or “Whose kingdom, its religion.” By itself this meant that the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the governed.
This is very important according to political philosophy because before the principle whose region is its religion, i> various monarchies across Europe were sanctioned by the Roman Bishop (Pope) in a coronation ceremony. This ceremony confirmed the belief that kings created by God rule their kingdoms (divine right). However, the principle whose region is his religion “whose kingdom, his religion” presented a new problem in political philosophy. If the king was no longer anointed by the church and appointed by God, where then do these monarchs have power?
In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes the major concern was society and its legitimate government structure. essentially, what makes governments legitimate and where they derive their power from. Hobbes’ theory of government is considered one of the first and most powerful examples of social theory. For Hobbes, social contracts are the foundation of states and legitimate governments. Hobbes came up with the idea of the social contract, stripping away all ranks of society and reducing man to the state of nature. According to Hobbes, in order to understand why we have society and government, we must first establish how it came into being.
Hobbes’s Leviathan begins with a very mechanistic understanding of human nature. He explains what would happen without society or government, and calls this condition of man “the state of nature.” In this state of nature everyone on earth has the right or license to everyone in the world – people can do whatever we want to whomever we want with impunity. This condition of man in the state of nature, according to Hobbes, would lead to the war of all against all, and as a result our life would be “solitary, poor, ugly, brutish, and short.”
Because the “war of all against all” would benefit no one in this state of nature, man must seek a way to escape this perpetual state of war. To do this, people living in the state of nature agree to establish a social contract and civil society. For Hobbes, society is a multitude of people under the rule of a sovereign and the people give the natural rights that are in the state of nature for the sake of mutual protection.
Moreover, Hobbes believes that some abuses on the part of sovereign authority must be accepted as the price of the peace that comes with not living in the state of nature. Hobbes also asserts that a prince must control all civil, military, and judicial institutions. Further, the supreme lord must also govern the church. It is important to note that Hobbes wrote Leviathan among the English Civil War (also known as the Glorious Revolution ) and Hobbes were able to demonstrate the need for a strong central government because of the events that were taking place around him.
we can say a few things about the most common things how Hobbes sees society. For that, all organizations of the company must have “down” organizations. That is, authority and power must rest with the ruler at the top, and those who are subordinate in civil society simply follow the dictates of those who hold power and authority. Since this system of organizing society is by no means perfect, it is probable that Hobbes would say that we cannot be perfect enemies, and some excellent deeds of those who practice power and authority to be regretted, but also the price that we must pay to live in peace – not to submit to them. “the war of all against all,” which is in the state of nature.
Source: Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. projectgutenberg.org
