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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 116, Thomas Hobbes II:
June 13, 2005:
With the turmoil boiling over in England, Hobbes continued to hide out in Paris. Who could blame him? Everyone was doing it. In 1646, the prince of Wales (later to be Charles II) came to Paris for his health. If he had remained on England he might have lost his head. While the Prince was in Paris Hobbes taught him mathematics. Other exiles continues to escape to Paris and Hobbes was compelled to return to is political works. He continues to expand on what he had already done in various versions, published in 1647, 1650, and 1651.
Life was going on and in 1651 Hobbes published his masterpiece "Leviathan" in four parts. In the first two, he reworked much of what he had already done. In the last two he discussed scripture and attacked those who disagreed with the rights of the sovereign in religious doctrine. His arguments for obeying moral rules were strictly secular. Obeying moral rules was just good sense. It was nothing more than enlightened self interest. A peaceable society and a comfortable living require moral behavior.
Considering what had happened to Hobbes' world, he was particularly interested in peace and the requirements thereof. Out of this came his social contract wherein the safety of each individual was guaranteed of the good behavior of his neighbors by creating a power sufficient to enforce that behavior. To effect that, each person must agree to obey the sovereign. Where Hobbes runs afoul of reason for later thinkers is his insistence on the sovereign being absolute once it is established leaving no recourse for the subjects when the sovereign goes rogue.
Well, by 1651Hobbes' world was pretty much upside down. The Royalists were out, Charles had come up short by a head, and Cromwell was the man in charge. This reality caused Hobbes to rethink his ideas on the sovereign and append them to Leviathan. He was not in bad shape because his arguments had always left an escape hatch. If the sovereign fails in protecting the subjects, the main reason for the social contract, the subjects have the right to abandon the sovereign and seek one that could protect thim.
The problem with this was, it annoyed Prince Charles and his exiled court. The french were also annoyed with him for his attacks on the Pope in his arguments about religious doctrine and practice. His response to all of th pressure was to go home in 1651 and try to make peace with Cromwell and his folks, which he managed. While the commonwealth lasted Hobbes published a series of controversial works which seemed designed mostly to annoy his adversaries at Oxford. These had to do mostly with science and religion.
Then came the restoration in 1660. Charles II was on the throne and Hobbes was back in favor. Charles even gave him a pension. Well, it was only a few years before the House of Commons got on his case. They were pushing through a bill against atheism and profaneness. Leviathan was to be investigated by a House committee. This almost reminds one of Washington and its witch hunts with its McCarthy's and Starr's. It kind of frightened Hobbes, but it also caused him to look into the law concerning heresy.
Like a true intellect, Hobbes published his findings in a work called "An Historical Narration Concerning Heresy and the Punishment Thereof." The essence of his argument was that no court of heresy existed, or could exist, in England. In addition, only things that disagreed with the Nicene Creed could be considered heresy. This Nicene Creed was a formal statement of doctrine of the Christian faith adopted at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 to defend orthodoxy from Arianism. Technically, Hobbes was on pretty solid ground here.
Ultimately, the bill on atheism was dropped, but Hobbes was shutout by Charles from publishing any more of his work of a political or religious nature. We can sympathize with Charles. He was just covering his butt. So Hobbes was shutout at home. Europe was another matter. In Europe, Hobbes continued to be very popular. Famous visitors to England continued to stop by to Visit Hobbes who remained a super intellect regardless of his age. He continued working and at 84 published his autobiography in Latin verse, no less. He continued to work and publish right up to his death in 1679.
The most lasting idea in Hobbes' work is that of the social contract. This is an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. In simple terms, this means the government governs with the consent of the governed. We can find the basis of some of these ideas way back in the philosophies of the Greek Sophists. However, it was not until the ground breaking work of Hobbes that the social contract took on real form and substance.
Later Locke and Rousseau offered differing versions of this social contract. The reasoning behind these ideas of a social contract are very similar for the three philosophers. The major premise is that man was born into a state of nature. This is a hypothetical situation wherein there is a complete absence of government or authority of any kind. In this condition, for Hobbes, there exists no standard of right and wrong. Hence we had a true jungle situation where brutishness prevailed and life was short, even for brutes. The state of nature is, in fact, a state of war.
For Hobbes, this state of war could be ended if people agreed to a social contract. In this, the people surrender their liberty and invest it into a sovereign. In Hobbes' case, the Sovereign was the King. The condition on the sovereign was that the lives and safety of the people was to be safeguarded by this sovereign power. Locke's version differs in that he insists the sovereign must not only protect the lives but also the property of the individuals. Locke also points out that the sovereign can be overthrown if it fails in this responsibility. Rousseau varied in the reasoning, but concluded that the rulers rule with the consent of the governed. This consent may be withdrawn by the governed if the sovereign screws up.
This social contract concept is no small thing. It takes away any reasonable justification and gives the lie to despotism for all thinking civilized peoples. It is the underlying premise upon which all arguments for suffrage and a commonwealth democracy rest. We need only read paragraph two of our own Declaration of Independence to see how Jefferson expressed these ideas in his own words.
"WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the
Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in
such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient
Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The History of the present King
of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations,
all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny
over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a
candid World."
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