Thomas Hobbes (2)
- Created by: Olivia Grace Matthews
- Created on: 17-05-16 23:41
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- Thomas Hobbes
- The Social Contract
- Way out of the state of nature
- Each must agree to hand over their right of nature to the sovereign with the right and power to enforce peace
- People are now subjects in a 'commonwealth'.
- Contract is between individual and right bearers, not directly the sovereign
- The Sovereign
- The sovereign is an office. an artificial creation of the people
- Represents the people
- Power is unlimited and undivided
- Interprets and applies laws of nature
- Sovereign can be multiple or a singular person
- Hobbes thought a monarch was the most effective
- Sovereign Rights and Duties
- Rights: Choose own successor, control education
- Rules about ownership and distribution of property
- War and peace, source of justice, tax
- Duties: To secure own survival and protect subjects
- Refrain from peace threatening policies
- Rights: Choose own successor, control education
- Subjects Rights and Duties
- Rights: Have only those rights granted by the sovereign
- Unless sovereign fails to protect them. Can revert to rights of nature
- No right of rebellion or civil disobedience
- Duties: Obedience to an effective sovereign and his laws
- Unless he attacks them etc. the sovereigns actions are irrelevant to disobedience
- Rights: Have only those rights granted by the sovereign
- Some objections to Hobbes
- 'A Hypothetical contract is no contract at all'
- How can a contract we have not actually made affect our rights?
- The 'communitarian criticism'.
- Is his account excessively individualistic
- 'Family bonds seem more artificial than natural contracts forged on the basis of protection
- Is his account excessively individualistic
- Excessively thin moral outlook?
- When to rebel?
- At what point do threats become serious enough?
- 'A Hypothetical contract is no contract at all'
- The Social Contract
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