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Example research essay topic: State Of Nature Plato And Aristotle - 1,725 words

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Introduction Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588, and was the son of an English vicar who fathered three children with his wife. When Thomas was still a young boy, his father was involved in a confrontation with another parson and was forced to leave his home, wife, and children. Thomas Hobbes paternal uncle took charge of the care of the children, and he took a keen interest in young Thomas. Thomas was reading and writing at age four, acquired functional knowledge of Latin and Greek at age six, and went off to study at Oxford at the age of fifteen (Ebenstein & Ebenstein, 1991).

Hobbes studied at Oxford for five years, and it is said that he was nonchalant about the course of study which he thought was arid and old-fashioned (Ebenstein & Ebenstein, 1991: 398). After graduating from Oxford, Hobbes worked as tutor and companion for the son of Lord Cavendish. Lord Cavendisn later became the first Earl of Devonshire, and the son whom Hobbes tutored was the same age as Hobbes. Through his association with this aristocratic family, Hobbes became personally acquainted with influential men in business and politics, and got to know the great scientists of the period. His acquaintances included such men as Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and Harvey. According to Ebenstein & Ebenstein (1991), Hobbes traveled extensively and spent about twenty years on the European continent, with much of this time spent in Paris.

While in France, he came to recognize the new developments in philosophy and science. Paris would become his home for a decade when he fled England during the conflict between Parliament and the Crown in the 1640 s. The historic struggle between the English king and Parliament is a well-chronicled story. To understand the context in which Hobbes was writing, one has to understand the political climate and reality of the period. The battles between the English executive and legislature goes back to the 1200 s when the kingdom was ruled by King John, a descendant of William the Conqueror. Under the monarchy of King John, England lost its continental portion of the kingdom, which included Normandy.

The taxing power of the king had become a major factor in the ongoing confrontations between the Crown (the executive) and the Parliament (the legislature). The king was engaged in a civil war with the English aristocracy, which consisted of barons and other nobles; and to gain peace, he agreed to sign the Magna Carta. Since the parliament and the power brokers of the time were dissatisfied with the taxing power of the king, one article of the Magna Carta stipulated that no taxes could be imposed unless by the common council of the realm which became the parliament (Lynch, 1998: 35). Lynch (1998) concurs that the Reformation period saw the power of the king (executive) being tested by Parliament (legislature) to the greatest degree. By 1649, the parliamentary faction had prevailed over the Crown, and King Charles I was already executed.

Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces became military leader and dictator of England, Scotland, and Ireland. After the death of Oliver Cromwell, his son led England for a short time before key elements of the army rebelled against him, and restored the monarchy with King Charles II as ruler in 1660. Tension between the executive and legislature persisted as Charles II and subsequent Stuart kings favored a divine-right-of-kings interpretation of power and seemed to consider adopting Catholicism as the state religion (36). The conflict would continue after the death of Thomas Hobbes in 1679.

When King James II was forced from the throne in 1688, his sister Queen Mary and King William were asked to share the throne. The 1688 English Bill of Rights was a product of this era, and the document established that no man could be force to pay taxes, grant loans, or give gifts without a consenting act of parliament. Prior to the political turmoil of the 1640 s, the writings of Thomas Hobbes were anti-democratic and anti-parliamentary. His major work up to this time was the De Cive in 1642, but it was written in Latin. As it as been pointed out (Ramon M.

Lemos, 1978), the De Cive is similar in fundamental principles to his later great work, the Liviathan published in 1651. The battle between the king and parliament would cause Hobbes to fear for his life, and in the 1640 s he fled England for France. During his stay in France he instructed Charles II, son of King Charles I, in mathematics from 1646 to 1648. Despite his concerns regarding the rule of parliament in England, Hobbes returned home in 1651 because he feared the French clergy more than the English parliament. In England he declared that he would submit to the republican regime, and remained in his homeland until his death in 1679.

The Liviathan is widely considered to be the first general theory of politics in the English language (Ebenstien & Ebenstien, 1991). Philosophy Early philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who defend absolute government, believed in the principle of human inequality. Those early philosophers posited the tenet that some men are naturally predisposed to rule, and are endowed with different attributes than the people over whom they rule. Hobbes argues from the opposite perspective, and proposes that men are naturally equal in mind and body (Ebenstien & Ebenstien, 1991).

He makes the point that, as for physical strength, the weakest possess enough strength to kill the strongest by destroying him secretly, or with the help of allies who are in the same danger. He reasons that mental strength and wisdom among men is naturally equal, though some people think that their wisdom is greater than others. Believing that one is wiser than others makes one contented with ones share of wisdom, and contentment with ones share of anything is a sign of equal distribution. That, in itself, he believes is enough proof that all men are equal rather than unequal.

The basic equality of men poses a threat to peace among men. Men with equal faculties will share like hopes and desires, and if two men desire the same thing, which they cannot both have, they will be at odds with each other. In explaining the theoretical state of nature, which is his explanation of every man against every man (Jackson J. Spielvogel, 1991: 559), Hobbes uses this brutish characteristic as a take-off point for discussion of the condition of war among men.

Before the organization of society, humans did not abide by reason and morals, but by an anomalistic and ruthless instinct to survive within the state of nature. According to Hobbes, the nature of war is not defined by the actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is peace (559). As long as men live in a state of nature in which their security lies only in their personal strength or secret machinations, then there is no culture, industry, and no knowledge of the earth. It is a condition of continual fear, and anger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short (559).

In Hobbes view, the fear of death is the force that leads men to aspire for peace. The individual desires for things like power and glory yield to the desire to secure life at the minimum, and, if possible, the means of a comfortable and fulfilling existence. As Aristotle believed that it is mans ability to differentiate between just and unjust, or good and evil that makes him different from other animals, so did Hobbes believe that mans ability to reason is the defining element of man over other animals. It is this power of reason which lead man to realize that his fear of death was due to the every man for himself attitude which results in the state of perpetual war of every man against all. This power of reason also leads man to realize that he needs not do that to another which thou thickest unreasonable to be done by another to yourself (Ebenstien & Ebenstien, 1991: 400). In the same manner in which Socrates and Plato see the State being formed for the creation of a collective good, so does Hobbes see the creation of a sovereign to secure the collective good for man, which is his security.

Hobbes argues that the essential faculty of reasoning guided man to the acceptance of the fact that to save themselves from destroying each other, they had to contract to form a commonwealth, which he called the great Leviathan. This commonwealth would concede its collective power to the hands of a sovereign authority. Hobbes prefers a single ruler serving as executor, legislature, and judge. Also like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Hobbes accepted the possibility of an assembly of men being the sovereign authority. Like the early philosophers who believed in the unchallenged authority of the king, Hobbes believed that the absolute ruler possessed unlimited power, and that subjects should be suppressed if they try to rebel. If the ruler should fail to exercise his power in an effective manner, then he should relinquish sovereignty.

The subjects should then transfer their loyalty to another ruler so that their peace would be secure (Spielvogel, 1991). A sovereign authority is a necessity in keeping the covenant between men, since mans desire for power and glory may lead him to break any covenant made with words only. This means that the proverbial sword must enforce the word in any agreement between men. Hobbes was careful to explain that the covenant, which gives sovereign power to a single ruler or assembly of men, is a covenant of everyone with everyone, including those who voted against it.

This hints at Hobbes democratic mechanism at deciding on the single ruler or assembly of men. However, once that covenant has been made there is no withdrawing from it; and they that have already instituted a commonwealth, being thereby bound by covenant to own the actions and judgements of one, cannot lawfully make a new covenant, among themselves, to be obedient to any other, in any thing whatsoever, without his permission (Ebenstein & Ebenstein, 1991: 413). This means that once a king or assembly has been elected, th...


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