Thomas Hobbes

Motives & Nature: On Relinquishing Rights to an Absolute Ruler

"So we may put as Hobbes' first proposition about human motivation:

(1) Men are moved by Appetites and Aversion. As soon as the moving force of appetites and aversions has been stated, Hobbes sets out several
additional propositions about appetites. (Lev., Ch. 6, pp.29-30)

'That which men Desire, they are also sayd to LOVE and to HATE those things, for which they have Aversion. So that Desire, and Love,
are the same thing; save that by Desire, we always signifie the Absence of the Object; by Love, most commonly the Presence of the
same. So also by Aversion, we signifie the Absence; and by Hate the Presence of the Object...
Those things which we neither Desire, nor Hate, we are said to Contemne: CONTEMPT...
But whatsoever is the object of any mans 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.'

(2) The Power of a Man is his present means, to obtain some future apparent Good. (Lev., Ch. 10, p.41)

(3) Every man must always seek to have some power, although not every man is self-impelled to seek as much power as others have,
or to seek more than he now has. (Lev., Ch. 10, p.41)

(4) That every man's power resists and hinders the effects of other men's power

(5) That all acquired power consists in command over some of the power of other men (Lev., Ch. 10, p.42)

(6) that some men's desires are without limit

(7) So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of Power after power, that
ceaseth only in Death. (Lev., Ch. 11, p.47)

Hobbes. . introduces the famous concepts State of Nature, Right of Nature, Law of Nature and Social Contract.

So, reasonable men who were in the state of nature would see that they had not only to give up their right to everything, but had also
to transfer to some authority their natural powers to protect themselves. It was the transfer of those rights and powers that would constitute the
obligation of the individual to the recipient authority: 'when a man hath... granted away his Right; then is he said to be Obliged, or Bound, not to
hinder those, to whom such Right is granted, or abandoned, from the benefit of it: and that he Ought and it is his DUTY, not to make voyd that
voluntary act of his own. (Lev., ch. 14, p. 65).. .The person or body of persons to whom these rights were transferred would be the sovereign
could not be sure of enough power to enforce the contract and maintain peace. So Hobbes has made his case that if men were in a state of
nature the only reasonable thing to do would be to get out of it, and the only way they could get out of it would be to hand over all their rights
and powers to a sovereign."

From: Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan, Introduction and notes by C.B. Macpherson, London and New York, Penguin Books, 1968, pp.37-44.

Social Contract
"Hobbes explains the connection between nature, man, and society through the law of inertia. A moving object continues to move until impeded
by another force, and 'trains of imagination' or speculation are abated only by logical demonstrations. So also man's liberty or desire to do what
he wants is checked only by an equal and opposite need for security. A society or commonwealth 'is but an artificial man' invented by man, and
to understand polity one should merely read himself as part of nature.
Such a reading is cold comfort because presocial life is characterized by Hobbes, in a famous quotation, as 'solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish and short.' The equality of human desire is matched by an economy of natural satisfactions. Men are addicted to power because its
acquisition is the only guarantee of living well. Such men live in 'a state of perpetual war' driven by competition and desire for the same goods.
The important consequence of this view is man's natural right and liberty to seek self-preservation by any means. In this state of nature there is
no value above self-interest because where there is no common, coercive power there is no law and no justice. But there is a second and
derivative law of nature that men may surrender or transfer their individual will to the state. This 'social contract' binds the individual to treat
others as he expects to be treated by them. Only a constituted civil power commands sufficient force to compel everyone to fulfill this original
compact by which men exchange liberty for security.
In Hobbes's view the sovereign power of a commonwealth is absolute and not subject to the laws and obligations of citizens.
Obedience remains as long as the sovereign fulfills the social compact by protecting the rights of the individual. Consequently rebellion is unjust,
by definition, but should the cause of revolution prevail, a new absolute sovereignty is created.

From: The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography, New York, McGraw Hill, 1973, p.300.

Ponder:
What justifies a ruler's unlimited power?
Did the rise of modern dictators (Hitler, Castro, Pinochet, etc.) mimic what Hobbes is saying about men and power? How?