HOBBES

61. Hobbes view of human nature is basically survivor mode. Every decision made is based off of physical sensations from external factors that we choose to avoid because it brings pain or permit because it brings pleasure. Human nature is the human tendency to preserve and promote our own well being. His model of a Human being seems to be more like a robot, an intelligent mechanical being but nothing more than a physical object – mortal. Unregulated human being of this nature would behave in a way that is very selfish and vulnerable to anything that threatens it, living in constant conflict with other opposing “natures”.

62. Human nature, like animal nature, is motivated by the desire to survive. The behavior that stems from this inclination is to protect and promote oneself while disregarding the intentions of those around us who are perceived as competitors unless they are seen to benefit our well-being. This leads to a state of nature that Hobbes calls a state of war, offense/defense mentality. If there is no sovereign authority regulating our actions there would be constant conflict and chaos. People would be fighting and competing in their self promoting efforts.

63. The justification for people finding it good to establish a commonwealth is that people will nevertheless come to the conclusion that a constant state of war would not be the best environment for their survival and inevitably seek peace for their own good. People would be giving up some of their will in having to control their desires to conform to the sovereign rule but they will gain peace which is an environment in which they can be safe, protected, and prosperous. The overriding reason to give up absolute power to a sovereign authority is it’s for the good of oneself and ones best interest.


64. The people who come into contracts with one another are the equal parties below the sovereign rule. It is not a contract between the people with the sovereign authority because then it would leave out some certain sect of people who didn’t agree to conform. So everyone on the same level, an equal plain, should be on the same page and agree with one another to have sovereign authority for their own good. Otherwise it wouldn’t work because even if there were sovereign authority there would still be rebellion.


65. According to Hobbes political authority is only legitimate if it is successful in protecting the people who agreed to submit to this authority. If it can no longer protect its people from threats whether internal or external then it is no longer legitimate. There is no justification for rebelling against a legitimate political authority. I think Hobbes reasoning might have overlooked what a society would want protection from. If an authority successfully protected a society from outside invasions and kept order within but did this by cruel dictatorship that overpowered peoples will in an oppressive manner taking away peoples rights that they never intended on giving up, then I wouldn’t consider this a legitimate political authority because of its course of action and how they went about things.


66. Hobbes thinks power should not be divided in a commonwealth. Power divided opens the door for internal corruption. Divided power leads to division of interests and conflict which will lead to the governments collapse. Hobbes thinks this would be very bad, so the authority should have absolute and complete power in order to effectively protect society from internal corruption.

67. Hobbes also thinks Authoritative power should not be limited because if it was it would be unable to successfully carry out it’s duty. Also, who would be the one to say the power has crossed the line? It would mean there is an authority above the authority, and if there was it would cause disagreements and conflict between these authorities. According to Hobbes this would be detrimental which is why he believes in absolute authority.