2. Hobbes speaks of the sovereign. Who or what is the sovereign? Is it the same as a king (who was called the sovereign)? What are the limits of the sovereign’s authority? Is Hobbes an apologist for dictators?
I think the sovereign also has to do with the description at the very beginning of artificial life. The comparison is that compared to natural life, in a machine, the springs are like the heart, the nerves are like the strings, and the joints are whatever gives motion to the whole body. Therefore, with man as the building block of this next comparison, the sovereignty is the artificial soul of the group because it propels the people. The nerves of this body are the people who enforce the law and rewards and punishment (which is what gives purpose to the people). The wealth is compared to strength of a being, the safety is business, counsellors are memory, laws are reason. I thought it was interesting how everything fit the comparison pretty well! The covenant, which is what united the society under the sovereign, is compared to God when He created the world.
Hobbes suggests that it is in our own self-interest to make a covenant or contract with the aim in preserving peace and respecting human life in order to move away from the state of nature. People would agree to trust the judgements of an elected person or assembly of people, who in return could offer a more secure and substantial way of living than that of the savage free-for-all of the state of nature.
ReplyDeleteIn order to ensure that all obey this covenant, Hobbes proposes ‘a strong sovereign’ to impose severe penalties on those who disobey the laws of the established covenants. The sovereign himself would enable people to freely trade, travel and form associations within limits. They would not only be protected from the threat of violent attacks, but would be involved in political life primarily through obedience to the institution of the commonwealth, on which the sovereign power is conferred by the consent of the people assembled. I don’t think Hobbes is an apologist for dictators because the whole point of the sovereign is that he is elected by the people (and for the people).