How and why the multitude escapes Hobbes's natural condition of mankind

Hobbes & Natural Condition of Mankind

Thomas Hobbes' the Leviathan

Due to the violent nature of mankind, human beings naturally seek peace which is best achieved by establishing a commonwealth ruled by a sovereign power through a covenant.

The objective of this paper is to illustrate Thomas Hobbes' philosophy on the natural conditions of mankind (state of nature) and why absolute monarchy is the best political system to adopt. His most famous work, entitled The Leviathan, was published on the 17th century as a reaction to the political havoc during the English Civil Wars which resulted to the beheading of King Charles I and the Parliament taking over the commonwealth.

In The Leviathan, Hobbes points out that mankind's nature is self-preserving and competitive and consequently tends to lean on violence. Thus, without civilization, laws or common power to restrain human nature, man is fated to ceaselessly war with each other. With this "destroy or be destroyed" way of life, human beings naturally seek peace for their own security. In war, it is only logical to assume that in greater numbers lies greater strength which calls forth unity as a necessity to survive and attain peace. In order to be united, men need not only a covenant but also a common power to make such covenant strong and unwavering. Hence, they must be willing to "confer all their power and strength upon one man or upon one assembly of men… that may reduce all their wills… unto one will ." In other words, they must choose a person or a group of people to be their representative such that they shall give up all their personal choices and views and adapt the choices and views of the appointed representative. This is the covenant that all must uphold in order to build a commonwealth. Hobbes, being a royalist, is referring to the system of government known as absolute monarchy wherein the monarch (usually the king or queen) holds the divine right to rule over the state with absolute power on all aspects (J. Spielvogel, 2009).

Hobbes cites two ways to attain absolute monarchy; by institution and by acquisition. The first one is achieved by voluntary agreement among a multitude of people wherein the selection of the sovereign power is done through the casting of votes or similar. He states that the main reason why people want a commonwealth by institution is because of fear of one another; they want a greater power to dictate the direction where everyone should go to avoid the possibility of everyone going against everyone else due to their opposing points-of-view. On the other hand, the second one requires the use of force by the sovereign power wherein people subject themselves under him due to fear of death or any other punishment should they choose otherwise.