Read the whole chapter on Hobbes as well as the other materials available in the module. Essay: Due Date: Friday, March 18th. Focus your essay around “Discussion Questions #1 and #3 (p. 210).
#1: Problem of Autonomy
In the ‘State of Nature’–or life outside the bounds of law/society–everyone is free to do as they wish. People are completely ‘autonomous’ (literally, ‘self legislating’) in the state of nature. What is striking about Hobbes’s theory is that he explains that ‘total freedom’ is one of the greatest dangers for humanity. Without the rule of law, life is “nasty, brutish, and short.”
What example can you think of to show that too much freedom leads to chaos?
#3: Who Controls the Sovereign?
In Hobbes’s Social Contract Theory, people come together and collectively renounce their right to self-governance (autonomy) and agree to follow common laws. However, without a higher authority or power to make sure no one breaks their oath to the common law, the oath itself is meaningless. So, the Social Contract also says that we need to transfer our right to self governance over to a higher authority and power.
The Sovereign’s job is to establish peace by establishing laws that all must follow. The Sovereign is the only power that can alter the laws once in place. That is, no citizen has the right to violate a law if it seems unjust. A citizen who violates a law is automatically acting immorally because the law equals morality for Hobbes. Only the Sovereign has the authority to survey the social landscape and alter a law that isn’t working.
But if the Sovereign is ‘above’ the ‘civil laws’, then will the Sovereign abuse his or her power? If so, what mechanism of control is in the citizens’ hands if they are not allowed to protest legally/morally?
