Political Theory

Political Theory

Thomas Hobbes

Born 1588

Tutor for Baron of Hardwick’s family

Significant time in Europe—scientific revolution

Translation of History of the Peloponnesian War

The Elements of Law, Natural and Political = Human Nature and De Corpore Politico

Math tutor for Charles II in Paris

Political Theory

Frontispiece of Leviathan

Leviathan (1651):•Theory of civil government in relation to the political crisis resulting from the English Civil War

•State of Nature:

•All have a right to everything in the world

•Due to scarcity, there is a constant, and rights-based, "war of all against all"

•Life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"

•To end war, he forms peaceful societies by entering into a social contract

Political Theory

Frontispiece of Leviathan

Society:•Population

•Under an authority

•Whom all individuals in that society promise just enough of their natural right

•Authority to be able to insure internal peace and a common defense

•Sovereign should be a Leviathan, an absolute authority whether monarch, aristocracy or democracy

Political Theory

Frontispiece of Leviathan

Society:•Hobbes preferred monarchy

•Abuses of power by this authority are to be accepted as the price of peace

•separation of powers is rejected: the sovereign must control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers

Political Theory

Born 1632

Educated in medicine and philosophy

Personal physician to Earl of Shaftesbury, founder of the Whig political party

Letters on Toleration

First and Second Treatises of Civil Government—written to defend the Glorious Revolution

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Accompanied Mary II, wife of William III, back to England in 1688 John Locke

Political Theory

Society:

1. Original state of nature was happy and characterized by reason and tolerance

2. Adding labor to objects provided a way of adding them to our own personal property

3. Inalienable rights: all human beings were equal and free to pursue life, health, liberty, and possessions

4. Government could only be legitimate if it received the consent of the governed through a social contract

Political Theory

Society:

5. Government protected the natural rights of life, liberty, and estate

6. Right of Rebellion

• If citizen consent was not given

• If government failed to protect inalienable rights of citizens

Political Theory

Society:

5. Government protected the natural rights of life, liberty, and estate

6. Right of Rebellion

• If citizen consent was not given

• If government failed to protect inalienable rights of citizens

Political TheoryMayflower Compact

Land patent granted by James I to London Virginia Company in 1619 (red area)

Navigation errors and weather locate them off course into land chartered to the Plymouth Company (green area)

Decision:

Stay

Relocate

Political Theory

Stay, but…..

Mayflower Compact

Political TheoryMayflower Compact

Concepts:• Notion of a social contract

• Establish a civil government

• Majority rule model

• Proclaim the settlers’ allegiance to the king

• Belief in covenants

Political TheoryMayflower Compact

“solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another”

“covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic” (group organized for government)

“our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends”

“by virtue (authority) hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time”

Political TheoryMayflower Compact

“as shall be thought most meet (fitting) and convenient for the general good of the colony”

“we promise all due submission and obedience”

Political TheoryMayflower Compact

“as shall be thought most meet (fitting) and convenient for the general good of the colony”

“we promise all due submission and obedience”