Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Ideal Government and the Theory of the Social Contract

Dec 16, 2008 Erin Britton

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate government based on social contract theories.

Written by Thomas Hobbes during the English Civil War, Leviathan was published in 1651 and is considered to be one of the earliest and most authoritative examples of the social contract theory. Simply put, social contract theories are implied agreements by which people form nations and maintain social order. Such a social contract implies that people give up certain rights to government or another authority in order to receive or preserve social order. In Leviathan Hobbes argues for a social contract and an absolute sovereign in order to avoid the kind of chaos that was being experienced in England during the Civil War.

Part I – Of Man

Leviathan begins with an analysis of society from first principles, starting with Man and the Senses. Hobbes gives detailed consideration to the natural state of mankind and identifies three basic causes of conflict within this state of nature: competition, diffidence and glory.

Part II – Of Commonwealth

Hobbes believed that a commonwealth is necessary if the population are to live peacefully and securely and the rule of law is to be maintained. Influenced by the chaos and destruction that he saw accompanying the Civil War, Hobbes believed that a civil society could only exist in the form of a commonwealth ruled by an absolute sovereign to whom all individuals ceded their natural rights for the sake of protection. Any abuses of power by this absolute authority are accepted as being the price of peace.

Hobbes’ sovereign has twelve principle rights:

Since a successive covenant cannot override a prior one, the subjects cannot lawfully change the form of government.
As the covenant forming the commonwealth is the subjects giving to the sovereign the right to act for them, the sovereign cannot possibly breach the covenant and therefore the subjects can never argue to be freed from the covenant because of the actions of the sovereign.
The selection of sovereign is by majority vote which the minority have agreed to abide by.
Every subject is author of the acts of the sovereign so the sovereign cannot injure any of his subjects, and cannot be accused of injustice.
Following this, the sovereign cannot justly be put to death by the subjects.
Since the purpose of the commonwealth is peace and the sovereign has the right to do whatever he thinks necessary to preserving this peace, the sovereign may judge what opinions and doctrines are averse; who shall be allowed to speak to multitudes; and who shall examine the doctrines of all books before they are published.
To prescribe the rules of civil law and property.
To be judge in all cases.
To make war and peace as he sees fit and to command the army.
To choose counsellors, ministers, magistrates and officers.
To reward with riches and honour or to punish with corporal or pecuniary punishment or ignominy.
To establish laws of honour and a scale of worth.

In Leviathan Hobbes expressly states that the sovereign has authority to assert ultimate power over matters of faith and religion and that if he does not do so, he invites discord among his subjects.

Hobbes also touched upon the sovereign’s ability to tax his subjects in Leviathan. Hobbes believed that equal justice required a practice of equal taxation. The equality of taxes doesn’t depend on the equality of wealth but on the equality of the debt that every man owes to the commonwealth for his defence and for the maintenance of the rule of law.

Part III – Of a ChristianCommonwealth

Hobbes then seeks to investigate the nature of a Christian commonwealth. If it were possible for any person to claim supernatural revelation superior to the civil law then chaos would ensue and it is Hobbes’ fervent desire to avoid this. Hobbes therefore established that it is impossible to infallibly know another person’s word to be a divine revelation.

Part IV – Of the Kingdom of Darkness

Hobbes is not here referring to hell but rather to the darkness of ignorance as opposed to the light of true knowledge.

Hobbes identifies four causes of this darkness:

Extinguishing the light of scripture through misinterpretation.
The demonology of the heathen poets which in Hobbes’ opinion are nothing more than constructs of the brain.
Mixing scripture with diverse relics of the religion and much of the vain and erroneous philosophy of the Greeks, especially Aristotle.
Mingling with both of these, false and uncertain traditions and feigned or uncertain history.