Salvahan, Jericho A.
ABPHILO 2-3
Social and Political Philosophy
Activity 4: Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes and His View on State
Thomas Hobbes used the concept of the State of Nature to argue that life would be intolerable
and insecure. According to him, “And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which
nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end, endeavor to
destroy, or subdue one another.”1 As he continued, “they are in that condition which is called war; and
such a war, as it is in the nature of weather.”2 Thus, Hobbes opposes the separation of power that can
be seen in democracy because we are driven by self-interest and desire for self-preservation.
Moreover, Hobbes contends that people give up their freedom and rights to the sovereign in return for
safety, “the mutual transferring of right, is that which men call contract.”3
“Secondly, because the right of bearing the person of them all, is given to him they make
sovereign, by covenant only of one to another, and not of him to any of them; there can happen no
breach of covenant on the part of the sovereign; and consequently none of his subjects … can be freed
from his subjection.”4 Thomas Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory postulates that people willingly engage
into a contract with each other in order to establish a civil society and a sovereign power. The sovereign
would have the authority to uphold the rule of law, keep the peace, and defend the general welfare of
every individual in the form of an absolute monarchy.
1
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , ed. J. C. A. Gaskin (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998),
2
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , 84.
Ibid., 89.
Ibid., 116.
83.
3
4
Bibliography
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Edited by J. C. A. Gaskin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.