Leviathan

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Leviathan

• Thomas Hobbes

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1769)

• Son of a priest (who had to flee) was educated by
  a wealthy uncle.
• Thomas read and wrote at 4, learned Greek Latin
  at 6, and went to Oxford at 15.
• Tutor of the Cavendish, had to live in exile more
  than once
• Context religious struggle Civil war
• Problems religious liberty legitimate
  authority (the King or the Parliament?)
• De Cive, 1642
• Leviathan, 1651

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A Theory of Obedience

• Hobbes ? St. Pauls
• (but)
• St. Paul founds his system on God, Hobbes does it
  without any need for God.
• Bourgeois justification of absolute power, by
  which the Commonwealth appears as a necessary
  outcome that arises from human nature.
• The need for Leviathan (mortal God) is
  self-evident
• Power is absolute also because obedience is
  absolute.

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Fear to violent death is the main force that
feeds the organization and preservation of
Leviathan.
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Influences

• Natural Sciences
• Geometry Hobbes seeks to build a geometry of
  power, to find out the natural laws that
  regulate society
• His theory is actually framed as a theorem he
  settles his premises one by one... Once we accept
  them, there is no way to escape the necessity of
  the conclusion.

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Hobbes deduces the need for Leviathan and
sovereignty from human nature.So, obedience
towards the Sovereign is both rational and
convenient for us.
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Hobbes is both a...

• Conservative
• (ideas)

• Revolutionary
• (method)

Thinker.
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Biblical Monsters

• Behemoth, the hippopotamus
• Leviathan, the crocodile (Job, Ch.41).
  Leviathan There is no power upon the earth
  which is compared with him.

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First Part lays the foundation of the system
(Laws of Nature)Second Part theorizes the
conditions for the emergence of Leviathan
Leviathan
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men have no pleasure, (but on the contrary a
great deale of griefe) in keeping company, where
there is no power able to over-awe them all
Anti-Aristotelian
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Ch. 13 Nature has made men equal

• In ability, in both
• Strength Bodily differences are not that big
  that the weakest cannot kill the strongest
• Mind similarities are even greater For
  Prudence, is but Experience.
• ...and in hope

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Equality of abilityequality of hopeMen
become enemies-War-
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And because the condition of Man... Is a
condition of Warre of every one against every
one in which case every one is governed by his
own Reason and there is nothing he can make use
of... In preserving his life against his enemyes
It followeth, that in such a condition, every man
has the Right to every thing even to one
anothers body (91)
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Equalitythere is nothing to which every man
had not Right by Nature (92)? Insecurity as
long as this natural Right of every man to every
thing endureth, there can be no security to any
man... (91)
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Therefore...

• every man is Enemy to every man
• In such condition, there is no place for
  Industry... And consequently no Culture of the
  Earth...
• ...and which is worst of all, continuall feare,
  and danger of violent death And the life of man,
  solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

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State of Natureequality Fear to a violent
death.
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• Justice is the constant Will of giving to every
  man his own. And therefore wehre there is no Own,
  that is, no Propriety, there is no Injustice and
  where there is no coerceive Power erected, that
  is, where there is no Common-wealth, there is no
  Propriety all men having Right to all things
  Therefore where there is no Common-wealth, there
  nothing is Unjust.

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• Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men
  live without a common Power to keep them all in
  awe, they are in that condition which is called
  Warre...
• ...the nature of War, consisteth not in actual
  fighting, but in the known disposition thereto,
  during all the time there is no assurance to the
  contrary. All other time is PEACE.

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No moral implications...

• The Desires, and other Passions of man, are in
  themselves no Sin. No more are the Actions, that
  proceed from those Passions, till they know a Law
  that forbids them...
• To this warre of every man against every man,
  this also is consequent that nothing can be
  Unjust. The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice
  and Injustice have there no place.

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Causes of quarrell in human nature

• In seeking...
• Gain
• Safety
• Reputation

• Competition
• Diffidence
• Glory
• ?
• VIOLENCE/WAR

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Hobbes State of Nature is a-historical it is a
formal model logically deduced.
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Fear of death (to a violent death) supports the
foundation of the social order.
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Law of Nature

• Precept, or generall Rule, found out by Reason,
  by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is
  destructive of his life... And to omit, that, by
  which he thinketh it may be best preserved. (91)
• Right ? Law
• (liberty to do) (bound to
  do it)

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The Laws of Nature...

• Apply in Foro interno
• Are immutable and aeternal

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Ch. 14 Natural Laws Contracts

• The RIGHT OF NATURE... Is the Liberty each man
  hath... To use his own power, as he will
  himselfe, for the preservation of his own Nature,
  that is to say, of his own Life... (91)
• Liberty absence of externall Impediments (91)

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Men final end is...

• the foresight of their own preservation... That
  is to say, of getting themselves out from that
  miserable condition of war, which is necessarily
  consequent... To the passions of men, when there
  is no visible power to keep them in awe... (111)

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every man, ought to endeavour Peace, as farre as
he has hope of obtaining it and when he cannot
obtain it, that he may seek, and use, alll helps,
and advantages of Warre. (92)
First (Fundamental) Law of Nature to Seek Peace
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The second Law follows...

• That a man be willing, when others are so too,
  as farre-forth, as for Peace, and defence of
  himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down
  this right to all things and be contented with
  so much liberty against other men, as he would
  allow other men against himselfe. (92)

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Achieving Peace...

• In order to gain Security and the preservation of
  our own life (93)
• Requires we renounce our rights...
• Rights may be
• Renounced
• Transferred

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• Contract mutual transference of Rights
  (inmediate). All Contract is mutuall
  translation, or change of Rights(95).
• Covenant (or Pact) one of the parts agrees in
  delivering the Thing contracted and leave the
  other to perform his part at some determinate
  time after

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The only natural right I cannot give up...

• A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force, by
  force, is alwayes voyd (98).

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Commonwealth

• But as men, for the attaining of peace, and
  conservation of themselves thereby, have made an
  artificial man, which we call a commonwealth so
  also have they made artificial chains, called
  civil laws, which they themselves, by mutual
  covenants, have fastened at one end, to the lips
  of that man, or assembly, to whom they have given
  the sovereign power and at the other end to
  their own ears. (144)

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Whatsoever is done to a man, conformable to his
own Will signified to the doer, is no Injury to
him. (104)
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Covenant

•  
• Conditions Individuals renounce all their power
  to the Assembly, which gives shape to the
  sovereign power. After that moment the rest
  become subjects. The only right that I keep is
  not to obey the sovereign if he orders me to hurt
  myself.

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Covenant

• Cause foresight of their own preservation, and
  of a more contended life thereby

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It is a real unity of them all, in one and the
same person, made by covenant of every man with
every man...
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Formula I authorize and give up my right of
governing myself, to this man, or to this
assembly of men, on this condition, that thou
give up thy right to him, and authorize all his
actions in like manner. (114)
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The multitude so united in one person, is
called a COMMONWEALTH, in Latin CIVITAS this IS
the generation of that great LEVIATHAN, or rather
(to speak more reverently) of that Mortal God, to
which we owe under the Immortal God, our peace
and defence. (114).
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The Commonwealth
is one person, of whose acts a great multitude,
by mutual covenants with one another, have made
themselves every one the author, to the end he
may use the strenght and means of them all, as he
shall expedient, for hteir peace and common
defense (114)
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Covenant

• Gains and losses individuals get peace and
  security, but also accept inequality-emergence of
  propriety (119164)-and the alienation of their
  will and rights.
•  

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Covenants, without the sword, are but word
(Leviathan111)

• The model of the state of nature is the
  foundation that serves Hobbes to justify the
  creation of the Leviathan, or artificial man, as
  the most rational solution to overcome the state
  of war between human beings.
• Power simply is. We either have power or not.
• Power does not accept degrees Power is either
  absolute or it is not power.

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Men are freed from Covenants...

• By Performing them
• By being Forgiven

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Forms of constitution

• By Institution
• By acquisition

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By institution

• Individuals decide to stop the state of nature,
  or the permanent state of war of all against all,
  and agree everyone with everyone to institute an
  order. (chap.XVIII,1)

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By Institution

• The multitude so united in one person, is
  called a COMMONWEALTH, in Latin CIVITAS this IS
  the generation of that great LEVIATHAN, or rather
  (to speak more reverently) of that Mortal God, to
  which we owe under the Immortal God, our peace
  and defence. (114).

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By Institution

• Leviathan has similar attributions that Yahve in
  the Genesis.
• Fear of each other supports this covenant.

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By Institution (three moments)

• 1. STATE OF NATURE
• 2. COVENANT
• 3. COMMONWEALTH

• 1. MULTITUDE
• 2. PEOPLE
• 3. SOVEREIGN/SUBJECTS

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By Institution

• The covenant transforms individuals in subjects.
• Subjects are neither a multitude nor they are a
  people. They become a part of the body of
  Leviathan

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By acquisition

• Men authorize the actions of those who have them
  in their hands by using force. Fear to others
  (or the Other, the conqueror) lies behind this
  covenant.

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• The Unicity of power is what must be guaranteed.
• No room for differences reduce all their wills,
  by plurality of voices, unto one will.

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• Otherwise, the search for truth could trigger
  conflicts, struggle, and thedisappearance of the
  Commonwealth.

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• Difference ?Sedition, factions.
• Factions are treated not as criminals, but as
  Enemies.

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Sovereignty

• The Sovereign is a mortal God.
• Sovereignty is
• Absolute there is no power bigger than it.
• Indivisible power is one by its nature. If two
  powers emerge, war is going to decide between
  them up to they unify again.
• Incommunicable
• Inseparable
• Unlimited

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The sovereign is the only one who is not obliged
by the covenant, and keeps the natural condition.

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The sovereign is the only source of truth,
justice, and knowledge.
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Truth cannot be a value in itself apart from
Sovereignty.Those who are powerful do not need
to be right rather, it is power what changes
opinions into truths.
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• The Sovereigns word is the only truth.

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God

• Hobbes permanently appeals to God and the Bible
  (parts 3 and 4 of Leviathan are devoted to
  discuss the Christian commonwealth and the
  Kingdom of Darkness), but...
• His theory builds on assumptions other than
  theological (natural laws)