Was Thomas Hobbes an absolutist?
Today Thomas Hobbes is remembered as an ardent defender of absolute monarchy (in the context of his time; the royal power of King Charles I of Britain) or less specifically as an apologist for absolutism in general no matter what form of government in might take.
What type of government did Thomas Hobbes believe the government should be?
Thomas Hobbes proposed that the ideal government should be an absolute monarchy as a direct result of experiencing the English Civil War, in which there was internal conflict between the parliamentarians and the royalists.
What is the nature of man according to Hobbes?
Generations have often debated the nature of man, with both optimistic and cynical views. Government represents the organized structure that controls man. In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes advocates for an absolute monarchy to keep citizens well behaved because man is inherently self-interested.
What does Hobbes write about the power of the monarch?
Unnervingly, Hobbes writes that the Monarch even has the power to execute innocent subjects if deemed necessary. This would not be an injustice or injury against the subject but only against Natural Law and God. Aristotle once wrote that no man could be happy on the rack.
Hobbes was one of a number of early modern theorists who argued that sovereigns possess absolute power over their subjects and who especially favored absolute monarchy. Hobbes is often portrayed as a strikingly original thinker. This chapter compares and contrasts his absolutist political theory with the ideas of other early modern theorists.
What does it mean to obey the absolute monarch?
As the above quote states, men, by the act of the Covenant, did ‘authorise all his actions’ (ibid). So in obeying the Absolute Monarch, the subjects are obeying themselves. The Absolute Monarch makes all decrees, Laws in the Commonwealth and appoints magistrates and other officers of State to implement and administer them.