Gender and Philosophy Class: Whose Job is it Anyways

Hobbes states that the proper form of civil government must have a supreme ruler governing the people in order to avoid the state of war. He believes that the goal of the people is to escape the state of war, and that they are willing to transfer their rights in order to leave it. “Whensoever a man transfers his right, or renounces it; it is either in consideration of some right reciprocally transferred to himself; or for some other good he hopes for thereby. For it is a voluntary act: and of the voluntary acts of every man, the object is some good to himself.”3 He believes that all men are equal in the state of nature despite any preexisting differences between them because they are ultimately powerful enough to defend themselves and their resources. “Nature hath made men so equal, in the faculties of the body, and mind; so that though there be found one man sometime manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind than another; yet

Thomas Hobbes, is regarded as one of a handful of truly great political philosophers, Hobbes is famous for his early and the elaborate development of the social contract theory. This was the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal, “to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons” (). Hobbes believed that the only true and correct form of government was the absolute monarchy that was on order to be strong enough to hold humanity’s

Why is this information important? By defining the intent of man, Hobbes is setting up the need for absolute sovereignty to create a conducive community where man can live with others. If he can establish that man is inherently seeking only for himself, he can create the need for a ruling authority. Hobbes will have to establish a need for man to have to deal with others to live. He will have to come up with a way for man to need to enter an agreement, and the rules of such agreements.

     Essentially what Hobbes is saying by all of this is that human beings are not fit to govern themselves. The notion of the social contract serves the purpose of saving us from ourselves because, according to Hobbes, humans are not able to do that on their own. The idea of acting on behalf of the common good is, while comprehensible in theory, impossible for humans to execute.

Hobbes believed that people should not possess any rights, because if we did, chaos would be created. Chaos would come afloat because humans are greedy, selfish and self-interested, making us unable to think of anyone else but ourselves. Our responsibilities would be to simply follow the “ king’s” rules, or in a society like ours, simply follow the laws. Ultimately in Hobbes's ideal society people would have no freedom and one responsibility, with the exception of the king who is in charge of keeping order; thus making his/her rights and responsibilities flexible. He thought this was because, during the English revolution, the chaos was created because people opposed the leader, and instead disagreed with him and his ruling

I will attempt to answer this question by initially explaining what Hobbes' view on humanity was, since these views were what caused him to write his theory on the social contract, quote part of what he wrote regarding the subject and what it means in layman's terms

In modern america sexism is slowly diteriating, but it has not complitly disappeared. Women have worked hard to become astronaut, Ceos, presidentsdoctors and more, but even with these accomplishments women are still discriminated against. Women face a variety of stereotypes in the work place that prevent them from progress, some company's really think that women don't need equal pay because they are not the head of the house hold and their husbands paycheck should do the job. Other business corporations believe that women can not committed to a job because they are the primary caregiver of their children which causes companies to lose money every time there is an emergency. "The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles

He wrote a book called The Leviathan; where he states his views on human nature and his implications for a proper government. Hobbes believes that all people are equal, but equality brings about competition. His view on human nature is that people are “naturally evil and selfish in the state of nature” (Hobbes). In order to maintain order amongst the evil people, a social contract should be signed with the Leviathan. When people sign the social contract, they give up all their rights to the Leviathan in return for law and order; this ensures protection and peace for the citizens.

Without a strong sovereign power, people would resort back to what he refers to as the “state of nature.” This state puts everyone against each other and is fueled by the unlimited desires of a human among scarcity. Another condition in the state of nature is that everyone is equal, allowing even the weakest person to kill the strongest. There is also a disagreement on good and evil among the people, however everyone searches for a way to protect oneself, which leads to the establishment of a social contract backed up by a great power. The self-serving and dangerous conditions of life in the state of nature now shift to the right of nature, which is self-preservation. This right comes with three laws, consisting of seeking peace when others do, creating a contract for peace, and obeying the contract. Hobbes defines a contract as a mutual transfer of right and should lead to peace, security, and stability as long as each party obeys. Once again, the sovereign is not a party to the contract, and is only there to make sure citizens keep the peace or else face the risk of being back in the state of

Mankind naturally wants protection and safety. Thomas Hobbes believed that, because of this natural want for protection, people will consciously give up their rights and freedoms. That means someone has to be in charge, resulting in the king or president and so forth. Hobbes placed obligations on who shall be bound by natural law. Thomas Hobbes supported a thing called absolutism. He believed that the civil law is the real law, and all men go after what is in their own best interest. Hobbes argues that people are rational, which allows him to think that they should be willing to submit to a higher power. The ‘real law’ that is talked about, Thomas Hobbes believes is only there to limit natural freedoms of particular people, not to hurt people, but to help them and band together against the same

Hobbes’ philosophy was centered around his beliefs and learnings mainly. Hobbes’ developed many works that are even used today for reference and reasoning. “Leviathan” is an example of one of Hobbes’ many works that shared his belief on absolute rule. For example, as stated in an article from Britannica Academy the following is stated about Hobbes’ beliefs “Hobbes started with a severe view of human nature: all of man’s voluntary acts are aimed at pleasure or self-preservation. This position is known as psychological hedonism”. This illustrates the fact that Thomas Hobbes believed humanity was far too flawed and selfish to function in the absence of an absolute ruler’s power. He was also opposed to the separation of powers, (as stated in Britannica Academy, Thomas Hobbes: Exile in Paris) “ He was firmly against the separation of government powers, either between branches of government or between church and state.” Therefore he was completely opposed to the idea of democracy as well. However, Hobbes believed that everyone should be equal under the law, except the king of course. As a result of his way of thinking many people at his time disagreed with Thomas and still do. Therefore he didn’t have much of an impact on his country at this time, considering his unique beliefs some even thought his beliefs were ludicrous.

His philosophy was that in a state of nature, we are really at a state of war. When people are not contained by an authoritative figure or society it turns into an "all against all"(qtd. in Thomas Hobbes: Methodology). In a personal experience, my class was given balloons and then told that whoever kept theirs by the end of the given minute would be rewarded. What happened next was that without any group agreement the majority of the class began to attack and sabotage each other's chance of winning. This is a great example of how Hobbe's says that people have the need to be dominant and have the upper

Hobbes made many philosophical contributions, many of which can best be seen in his book titled Leviathan. In it he targets the social contract theory and reasons that society will sustain under complete submission to authority. The Social Contract theory stated that the right

As a result of Hobbes’ definition of the State of Nature, his views on the role of government and representation are thus: Hobbes believes that the role of the government is to impose law and order on a populace in order to keep man’s natural state of war at bay. Government is created for the sole purpose of neutralizing Hobbes’ State of Nature and their creation is thus meant to allow people the opportunity to pursue improving their lives without mortal fear at every moment. As a result of his stated role of government, Hobbes’ social contract leaves no room for representation by the people. Hobbes’ preferred government would be an absolute monarchy because according to Hobbes’ State of Nature, men need to be controlled, and that is all. Hobbes’ view on government is that it is meant to maintain order, not pander to the will of the people. Hobbes believes that because the State of Nature is so chaotic and brutal, that without a powerful and solitary sovereign who wields complete and utter authority, any form of a social contract would be ineffective. Hobbes believes that because of the State of Nature, specifically the aspect where all people are equally capable of harming others, having multiple rulers or “sovereigns” would only intensify the already

Hobbes believed that if each individual shares the same views about acquiring peace and mutual co-operation then they can construct a social contract that will grant them immunity from the State of Nature. A social contract can be broken apart into two phases: the first is that people must mutually agree to establishing a society collectively by acknowledging each other’s right to live equally and the second phase is that they must agree to submit to the authority of an individual or group who will in turn make sure that the first phase of the social contract will be carried out. This is done so that those people who choose to engage in a social contract with one another can have surety that even if their counterparts fail to reciprocate the social contract terms then the authority in charge will enforce certain laws that will punish and deter people from going against the social contract. Since a state will be granted the authority to enforce punishments for those who breach the social contract then people will begin adjusting their lifestyles to in accordance with the social contract unlike in the State of Nature wereby there was no officially authority to rule and enforce order so that people can co-operate despite their differences. This is a good way for people to live amongst each other harmoniously