Questions and Answers for Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
What does the Fool say to Thomas Hobbes in chapter 15 of Leviathan?
Thomas Hobbes writes in Chapter XV of Leviathan: The Fool hath said in his heart, there is no such thing as Justice. This would immediately have recalled to Hobbes’s readers the words of the...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
In Leviathan, why is the Leviathan called "artificial?"
As other posts here indicate, "artificial" in the 1600s would mean created by humans. The Leviathan represents political power or the commonwealth, which is made up of the many parts of the social...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
What is the theme of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan?
The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, explores morality and civil ethics (essentially good and evil and how to properly govern) in a country disconnected from traditional, religious, or absolute moral...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
According to Hobbes’ Leviathan, human life without government would be characterized by each of the following...
On second thought, if you conceive of "technology" broadly enough, that could be the answer. For example, if you say that a stone knife is technology, then that is certainly something that could...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
In chapter 13 of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, how does he describe mankind's natural condition in terms of whether it...
In chapter thirteen of Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes discusses what he considers to be the "natural condition of mankind." He describes this condition as one of approximate equality but, unlike...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Does justice have a place in Hobbes's theory of the social contract from Leviathan? Does justice have a place in...
Hobbes does address the idea of justice when speaking about Natural Law, however, justice enters only at a tertiary level. The primary components of Natural Law allow for neither justice nor...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Does Hobbes's view of the state of nature apply to 2020? Do we need a Leviathan? If so, why and what form should this...
In answering this question, it's important to acknowledge at the outset that the transition from the state of nature to a society governed by an absolute sovereign so vividly painted by Thomas...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Explain the idea of the social contract in Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
For Hobbes, the social contract is a contract that people make with one another that allows them to live together in a society. If people do not make such a contract, they will be living in a...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
In Leviathan, the condition that men are in during the time they live "without a common power to keep them all in...
So are you just asking what this time is called? This time is called the state of nature. In the state of nature, there is what is often called the war of each against all, though Hobbes' own...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
How important is Hobbes' concept of government as a social contract in Leviathan?
According to Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, the natural state of man is warfare, which makes life "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." This was a consequence of the basic equality of men in...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
In comparing Hobbes's philosophy to Aristotle's, does Hobbes offer a plausible alternative to the Aristotelian account?
It is notable that many of Hobbes's references to Aristotle in Leviathan are very general: I believe that scarce any thing can be more absurdly said in natural Philosophy, than that which now is...
Leviathan: Or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Does the thought of Hobbes in Leviathan specify or imply a set of moral standards? That is, does his work indicate...
Hobbes's political philosophy is notable, among other things, for its complete amorality. In writing Leviathan, Hobbes wanted to turn politics into a science, based on the same kind of unchanging...