Summarize the Thomas Hobbes' position on government and human nature in Leviathan.
What will be an ideal response?
The ideal answer should include:
- He was influenced by the English Civil War and its unrest.
- He argued that humans have two motives, fear of death at someone else's hands and want of power.
- Hobbes argued that, left on their own, humans would sink into destructive anarchy.
- Instead, he suggests that humans need to accept the social contract, which means giving up sovereignty over themselves and bestowing it on a ruler.
- Humankind's only hope, Hobbes argued, is to submit to a higher authority, the "Leviathan."
- Hobbes wrote that government should preserve humanity by protecting people from self-rule.
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