Hobbes' Influence On The Us Constitution

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes is known for his political philosophy, which has influenced many thinkers who adopted the social-contract framework, including John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Hobbes's vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. Hobbes's ideas on social contracts, equality, and natural liberties inspired the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

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Hobbes's influence on the social contract

Thomas Hobbes is now widely regarded as one of the greatest political philosophers. His work, Leviathan, is considered a masterpiece and rivals in significance the political writings of Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Rawls. Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of "social contract theory".

Hobbes' social contract theory is founded on the hypothetical State of Nature. According to Hobbes, the state of nature is a state of war in which there are no enforceable criteria of right and wrong. Human life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". People take for themselves all that they can, and the state of nature is a state of universal insecurity where all have reason to fear violent death. Hobbes' vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics.

In Hobbes' social contract, individuals agree to give up their liberty and submit to the authority of an absolute, undivided and unlimited sovereign power in exchange for their safety and well-being. Hobbes justifies wide-ranging government powers on the basis of the self-interested consent of citizens. The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature and enter civil society. Hobbes' theory of human motivation, Psychological Egoism, holds that people are purely self-interested or egoistic, and that their consent is required before they will be under the authority of anyone else.

Hobbes' social contract theory has had a profound impact on subsequent work in political philosophy. His ideas influenced John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant, who adopted the social-contract framework. Hobbes' theory also influenced those theorists who connected moral and political decision-making in rational human beings to considerations of self-interest.

Hobbes' social contract theory has also been the subject of various critiques, particularly from feminist perspectives. Carole Pateman's book, The Sexual Contract, argues that underlying the idealized contract described by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau is a more fundamental contract concerning men's relationship to women.

Hobbes's views on equality

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy. Hobbes's political philosophy was influenced by his mechanistic worldview, which suggested that liberty is the freedom of motion, and that threats of force do not deprive us of liberty. In his view, if one yields to threats of violence, it is a choice, and such obedience constitutes a promise to continue obeying.

Hobbes's philosophy centred on the problem of social and political order, and how human beings can live together in peace, avoiding civil conflict. He argued that people should give their obedience to an unaccountable sovereign, who has the responsibility for the safety and well-being of all. This sovereign power could be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a democracy, with each having advantages and disadvantages. However, Hobbes preferred monarchy due to the unity it provides and the fixed rules of succession.

Hobbes's influence on the US Constitution is a subject of debate. While some argue that his ideas of a strong leader with absolute power may have influenced Article 2 of the Constitution, others suggest that the writers of the Constitution intentionally moved away from Hobbes's model, opting for a division of powers instead. Hobbes's impact on later political theorists, such as Locke, Rousseau, and Kant, who connected moral and political decision-making to considerations of self-interest, is also notable.

Hobbes's ideas on liberty

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his ideas on political philosophy. Hobbes's ideas on liberty are closely tied to his views on the social contract and the role of government.

Hobbes defined liberty as the "absence of external impediments". In other words, people are free when no external obstacle prevents them from doing what they desire to do. According to Hobbes, liberty is the state of being free from the arbitrary will of any other human being but subject to the legitimately established law. He saw laws as artificial chains that reduce individual liberty. In Hobbes's view, the government's primary purpose is to ensure collective security and maintain social order. This is achieved through a social contract in which individuals consent to give up some of their liberties in exchange for safety and stability.

Hobbes believed that the sovereign's power should be unlimited, enabling them to do whatever is necessary to secure peace and security for the commonwealth. He argued for absolute monarchy as the best form of government, with the sovereign holding responsibility for the safety and well-being of all citizens. Hobbes saw the sovereign as being above the law, not bound by the same rules as the citizens. This view of an all-powerful sovereign has been criticised for its disregard for individual liberty and the potential for abuse of power.

However, Hobbes also recognised the importance of promises in his social contract theory. He argued that individuals are free to make choices, even when faced with threats of violence or punishment. By choosing to obey the sovereign, individuals enter into a promise to continue obeying, but this promise is based on coercion and raises questions about its moral validity.

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Hobbes's preference for monarchy

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy, as articulated in his masterpiece, Leviathan (1651). Hobbes viewed government primarily as a device for ensuring collective security. He was concerned with the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict.

Hobbes' preference for monarchy is well-documented. He was born under Queen Elizabeth I and later became math tutor to the future King Charles II, so he had a close association with the monarchy. Hobbes argues that all forms of government, including aristocracy, democracy, and an assembly such as Parliament, have advantages and disadvantages. However, he preferred monarchy because it provides unity, with a single person at the apex, along with fixed rules of succession that pre-empt disputes about who should be the leader.

Hobbes believed that the only authority that naturally exists among human beings is that of a mother over her child, as the child is dependent on the mother for survival. Among adults, he argued, there is no natural source of authority to order their lives together because every human being is capable of killing any other. Therefore, Hobbes claimed that we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue), or else we will descend into a state of nature that closely resembles civil war.

In his earlier works, Elements and De Cive, Hobbes describes how each person lays down their rights in favour of a sovereign person or an artificial person, such as a rule-governed assembly. In these accounts, sovereigns retain the right to act on their private judgment in all matters and exercise the transferred rights of subjects. However, Hobbes's main concern was to argue that effective government, whatever its form, must have absolute authority. He believed that the powers of legislation, adjudication, enforcement, taxation, and war-making must be connected and not divided or limited, to ensure effective governance.

Hobbes's impact on the Second Amendment

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy, as articulated in his masterpiece, Leviathan (1651). Hobbes's political philosophy influenced many successors who adopted the social-contract framework, including John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant.

Hobbes's main concern was the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He posed stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue), or otherwise face a state of nature that closely resembles civil war. In this state of nature, there is universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death, and rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible.

In Hobbes's social contract, the many trade liberty for safety. Hobbes believed that the tendency towards self-preservation was a natural instinct and should be a cornerstone of governing principles. This is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Hobbes's influence can be seen in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that a well-regulated militia is necessary for the security of a free state. This supports Hobbes's view on self-defence, where he believed that all subjects of a government had the right to defend themselves against, and even overthrow, a government that no longer supported them.

While Hobbes's ideas of a strong, centralised leader with absolute power go against the division of powers in the US government, his influence can still be seen in the US Constitution, particularly in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, which forbids any state from depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, thus enshrining Hobbesian ideas into US government.

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