according to enlightenment thinkers what is the main job of government

nineteen.four: Enlightenment Thinkers

19.4.1: Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, an English language philosopher and scientist, was one of the fundamental figures in the political debates of the Enlightenment period. He introduced a social contract theory based on the relation betwixt the absolute sovereign and the civil lodge.

Learning Objective

Depict Thomas Hobbes' beliefs on the relationship between government and the people

Key Points

• Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and scientist, was ane of the key figures in the political debates of the Enlightenment period. Despite advocating the idea of absolutism of the sovereign, he developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought.
• Hobbes was the outset modern philosopher to articulate a detailed social contract theory that appeared in his 1651 work Leviathan. In it, Hobbes gear up out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments and creating an objective science of morality.
• Hobbes argued that in gild to avoid chaos, which he associated with the land of nature, people accede to a social contract and establish a civil society.
• One of the about influential tensions in Hobbes' statement is a relation between the absolute sovereign and the guild. According to Hobbes, lodge is a population beneath a sovereign dominance, to whom all individuals in that society cede some rights for the sake of protection. Any ability exercised by this dominance cannot exist resisted because the protector's sovereign power derives from individuals' surrendering their ain sovereign power for protection.
• Hobbes also included a give-and-take of natural rights in his moral and political philosophy. While he recognized the inalienable rights of the human being,  he argued that if humans wished to live peacefully, they had to surrender most of their natural rights and create moral obligations, in gild to establish political and civil club.

Key Terms

Leviathan

A book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and published in 1651. The work concerns the construction of social club and legitimate government, and is regarded every bit one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. It argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign.

social contract theory

A theory or a model that typically posits that individuals take consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authorization of the ruler or magistrate (or to the determination of a majority), in commutation for protection of their remaining rights.

natural rights

The rights that are not dependent on the laws, customs, or beliefs of whatever particular civilisation or government, and are therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws).

English Civil State of war

A serial of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") over, principally, the manner of England'southward government. The first (1642-1646) and 2nd (1648-1649) conflicts pitted the supporters of Rex Charles I confronting the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the tertiary (1649-1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles Ii and supporters of the Rump Parliament.

Background: The Historic period of Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that dominated the earth of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. It included a range of ideas centered on reason every bit the master source of authority and legitimacy, and came to advance ideals, such equally liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The Enlightenment has besides been hailed as the foundation of modern western political and intellectual culture. Information technology brought political modernization to the west by introducing autonomous values and institutions and the creation of mod, liberal democracies. Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and scientist, was one of the central figures in the political debates of the menses. Despite advocating the idea of absolutism of the sovereign, Hobbes developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political society (which led to the later stardom between civil order and the state); the view that all legitimate political ability must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of police that leaves people free to do whatever the police force does non explicitly foreclose.

Leviathan: Social Contract

Hobbes was the get-go modern philosopher to articulate a detailed social contract theory that appeared in his 1651 work Leviathan. In it, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments and creating an objective scientific discipline of morality. As Leviathan was written during the English Civil War, much of the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong fundamental authority to avoid the evil of discord and civil war.

Beginning from a mechanistic understanding of man beings and the passions, Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the state of nature. In that land, each person would accept a right, or license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a "state of war of all confronting all." In such a state, people fear death and lack both the things necessary to commodious living and the hope of being able to toil to obtain them. So, in order to avoid it, people accede to a social contract and institute a ceremonious society. According to Hobbes, guild is a population below a sovereign dominance, to whom all individuals in that lodge cede some rights for the sake of protection. Whatsoever power exercised by this authorisation cannot be resisted because the protector's sovereign power derives from individuals' surrendering their own sovereign power for protection. The individuals are thereby the authors of all decisions made by the sovereign. In that location is no doctrine of separation of powers in Hobbes's discussion. According to Hobbes, the sovereign must command ceremonious, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical powers.

Thomas Hobbes by John Michael Wright, circa 1669-1670,  National Portrait Gallery, London Hobbes was one of the founders of modernistic political philosophy and political scientific discipline. He too contributed to a diverse array of other fields, including history, geometry, the physics of gases, theology, ideals, and general philosophy.

Natural Rights

Hobbes too included a discussion of natural rights in his moral and political philosophy. His' formulation of natural rights extended from his formulation of man in a "state of nature." He argued that the essential natural (man) right was "to use his own ability, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own Nature; that is to say, of his own Life (…)." Hobbes sharply distinguished this natural "liberty" from natural "laws." In his natural state, human'southward life consisted entirely of liberties and non at all of laws, which leads to the world of anarchy created by unlimited rights. Consequently, if humans wish to live peacefully, they must give upward most of their natural rights and create moral obligations in lodge to constitute political and ceremonious gild.

Hobbes objected to the attempt to derive rights from "natural law," arguing that law ("lex") and right ("jus") though frequently dislocated, signify opposites, with police force referring to obligations, while rights refer to the absence of obligations. Since by our (human) nature, we seek to maximize our well being, rights are prior to police, natural or institutional, and people will not follow the laws of nature without first being subjected to a sovereign ability, without which all ideas of right and wrong are meaningless. This marked an of import departure from medieval natural law theories which gave precedence to obligations over rights.

Attributions

• Thomas Hobbes

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/enlightenment-thinkers/

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