Froylan Vargas Professor Innes December 11, 2012 Philo 102 Classics of Philosophy Thomas Hobbes Authoritarianism is a legitimate

position for the Organization of Government. According to Hobbes his view of Authoritarianism seems to be the perfect fit for the organization of a government. Hobbes states that people are basically selfish and greedy and out for their own interests in life. Hobbes believed that man is an animal functioning primarily on self-interest and that man has a fear of death more so of a violent death. These two human nature elements balance out so man can survive. The foundation of Hobbes political theory is of selfpreservation. The fear of a violent death like that in war keeps man in check makes man form a civil society for power and or protection. In order to avoid war and ultimately death man makes contracts with others to form a civil society with peace being the goal that is accomplished. Hobbes declares that without these contracts between men it leads to a state of nature. The state of nature being the state of war meaning that life will be short, brutish, solidary, nasty, and poor. In order to combat Hobbes belief of the state of nature is for man to achieve a civil society with one supreme leader to guide the population to the right way of living. The leader in this case would be an absolute power that has a divine right to rule. These absolute leaders have the power to quell all disagreements with their word because, their word is the law of the land and people must obey them. Hobbes first part of the first law of nature says that man wanting to

avoid death is to allow themselves to seek peace. In the second part of his law if people dont want to form a civil society is to go to the original state of nature war. In war anything goes and its a free for all. Hobbes makes the argument that a society must not look for war but, rather prepare for it and be ready for the attack that is inevitable regardless of who you are. The best and more useful society is one that is formed with mutual agreement and respect for one another including property and then in turn they will respect you in the same sense. The exception of the formation of the civil society is that no one person has more rights than others in the society. For Hobbes a contract are made one-to-one between everyone and is defined as the mutual transferring of a right. Members of a society must give up rights so that nobody has an advantage over another. Trust becomes the main component and is what holds up the social contract and ultimately the civil society as a whole. When a contract involves trust over a great given amount of time it is deemed as a covenant. Keeping covenants prevents from man falling back on in the state of war. Covenants are made between men who desire to leave the state of nature and form a civil society. In the end it is ones interest to form contracts and covenants in a civil society because, if not mans chances for survival are dwindled. In order for men to follow these rules of nature is having judgment from an authority figure pass down what is fair and just. Hobbes talks about how man must form a power structure because, if man makes a covenant and there is no threat of war or death then it defeats the whole purpose and results in just words that a person can choose to follow or not. By giving up some of your rights to a sovereign power is the only way to keep a commonwealth intact but, all power must be given to the sovereign power. In Hobbes view if a civil society gave all that power to a sovereign power it will deter anarchy by not allowing it to develop but, the argument against that would be that it could create tyranny. Man will willingly hand over unlimited power to a

sovereign out of fear of extinction. One rule that the sovereign cant do is make covenants with a members of a commonwealth because, they dont constitute an individual however, he can make a covenant with every member of the common wealth. The hope for a sovereign is that he will be both stern and be benevolent at the same time. In accordance to Hobbes belief the sovereign should have unlimited power in order to rule. Hobbes believes that a sovereign power should be of the commonwealth and not the other option of being an outsider because, an outsider cannot be trusted. The ruler should be chosen before covenants are made the argument with that is that in order to choose a ruler it must come from the covenants that men from that commonwealth have made. The way the sovereign can guarantee his own survival is to rule the commonwealth in the manner that will assure survival for its members. According to Hobbes there are only two ways that a person is justified in refusing a directive issued by the sovereign. The first being any command that is issued by the sovereign as being life threating can be disobeyed. The second is that if the sovereign wants to wage an unnecessary war then avoiding the draft is acceptable but, not if war is needed to maintain the commonwealth. This view from Hobbes suggests that a political system of sternness can result in the best kind of political system according to him. There are arguments for his way of thought and arguments against his way of thought with both sides in the right. Hobbes view on authoritarianism shares the commonality with the democracy principle of giving up freedom to a higher authority. In our way of thinking as westerners we see authoritarianism as this form of a dictatorship or modern day communism. Authoritarianism in a sense is the older fundamental view of a modern communist country. Authoritarianism can be a

legitimate form of organization of the government on the grounds that modern countries today have a sense of authoritarianism in their government. It has been seen in the past as an acceptable form of government. An example of it would be medieval Europe and how each state had a king who ruled over the peasants and the rest of the population this king was the absolute ruler and was allegedly the rightful ruler with word passed down from a higher being. Armies operate in an authoritarianism way too soldiers give up basic liberties while the commanding officer is the absolute authority and does not get disobeyed. The commanding officer expects loyalty and in return will grant fairness and protection to his soldiers. This view is evident in our daily lives as well an example would be how women see men as authoritarian in the sense that men rule over them in return for protection also, the prison system operates on that same level. Professional sports have a untold covenant as well like how the opposing team agrees on to hurt your best player on your team and in return your team wont hurt theirs. In an authoritarianism government the required obedience that is instilled in the general population and the granting of rewards for loyalty is used a psychological tool for the sovereign. The opposing view for this type of government is that it has a tendency to cause corruption and failure of the government although modern democracy or republicanism the power is shared among groups of people that limit the chance for corruption. The group of governmental figure heads can also cause corruption in a government as well. In order to understand the different types of government you must understand how authoritarianism plays a role in that particular type of government because it does have a role. Thomas Hobbes view on authoritarianism has its way of being right and also shows signs of flaws like how any other type of government structure will.