Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, from 1651, is one of the first and most influential arguments towards social contract. Written in the midst of the English Civil War, it concerns the structure of government and society and argues for strong central governance and the rule of an absolute sovereign as the way to avoid civil war and chaos.
Stats for nerds
22recommend
120mentions
103people
2008–2026years
18% recommend79% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- >"Something I've always wondered: What keeps the guards and thugs of the ""elite"" from just killing the elite and taking their money?"
Read Leviathan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book)
- I'd argue this is too expansive of a view. It's a debate specifically coming out of the English Civil War, and specifically focusing on the tension between Parliament and the Monarchy. If you read Clarendon it becomes extremely obvious. Hobbes (like Clarendon) took the royalist view defending the king, and Locke set for an argument for parliament.
Some of it doesn't translate super well into modern times. For example, Locke barely touches upon judiciary. The modern notion of separation of powers came (I believe) from Montesquieu.
I will say that Hobbes gives a far more comprehensive argument than Locke does. And some of Locke's details, including his anthropology of the origin of commonwealths, is demonstrably false.
Either way, glad to see Leviathan here!
- The contracts that the founders of the US constitution based the constitution on.
You may want to start with Leviathan, then move on to John Locke, Hobbes and Descartes. No post I make will ever substitute for a reading of those authors.
- In the spirit of https://existentialcomics.com/comic/289 please familiarize yourself with Hobbes' Leviathan and the concept of state monopoly on violence and the advantages of it before embarrassing yourself with posts like this.
- Anyone that is interested in the “too centralized power vs. safety” topic should really read Leviathan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book)
I read the whole article and admittedly most of my knowledge of El Salvador comes from it, but I do think that the critics seem to not understand the concept of monopoly of violence, and how much of the democratic norms that keep the developed world in check are built upon this centralized authority.
Great article and I do agree with his basic conclusion: so far, it’s “been worth it”, but the cost may be future instability. I think a lot of people want El Salvador to turn into a typical western democratic state, but IMO I think their goal is to be something more like Singapore.
- I would recommend jumping in the deep end and start reading primary sources from the east and west and all the places inbetween. Once you start reading and searching - perhaps university library catalogs, you will find many more. Guttenberg and other free ebook sources are great because most of the greats are well out of copyright.
Kant "Metaphysics of Morals"
Singer "Animal Liberation"
Plato "Repulic"
Einstein "Philosophical Works"
Hobbes "Leviathan"
Rousseau "Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men"
I have a degree in Philosophy and it is the best thing ever.
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