Thomas Hobbes' View on Government

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Thomas Hobbes' View on Government

Thomas Hobbes in his controversial work, the Leviathan, declares that such

a government based on the rule of the common people, would result in

anarchy and total pandemonium.

But before one can understand Hobbes' view on government, it is important

to understand how Hobbes feels about people. Hobbes has a very

materialistic view on the world because of his belief that the movements

of physical objects will turn out to be adequate to explain everything in

the universe (Kemerling). As a result of those philosophical beliefs,

Thomas Hobbes truly held a negative view of man. He describes men as being

naturally vain and selfish. He states in the Leviathan, "whatsoever is the

object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it which he for his part

calleth good; and the object of his hate and aversion, evil; and of his

contempt, vile and inconsiderable. For these words of good, evil, and

contemptible are ever used with relation to the person that useth them"

(Hobbes). In other words, Hobbes is giving an example of men being selfish

by saying that men by nature perceive a thing as being good or bad by how

it affects their own self-interest, and not how it affects others. He then

goes on in saying, "...if any two men desire the same thing, which

nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies" (Hobbes). Hobbes

implies that "the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and

short" (Blanchard). Hobbes's initial assertion in the Leviathan i...

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...tml

Hobbes, Thomas. "Leviathan." eBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online.

6/28/2003 http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/h/h68l/

Kemerling, Garth. "Hobbes's Leviathan."Philosophy Pages. 6/27/2003

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/3x.htm

O'Connor, JJ and Robertson, E F. "Thomas Hobbes." School of Mathematics

and Statistics. 6/27/2003

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hobbes.html

Tucker, Peck. "On the Leviathan by Tucker Peck." Thomas Hobbes. 6/30/2003

http://www.thomas-hobbes.com/papers/leviathan.html

Westfall, Richard S. "Hobbes, Thomas." Catalog of the Scientific Community

in the 16th and 17th Centuries. 6/27/2003

http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/hobbes.html

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