POL200Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Leviathan, Thought Experiment
20 Sep 2017
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Lecture outline: hobbes, leviathan, chapters 18 21: sovereign power by institution and by acquisition. Transfer the right of nature to the sovereign. We transfer it through the seat of government upon which the government rests. This someone (sovereign) is not a part of the contract. By transferring the power, we create the leviathan, the sovereign, the one with legitimate power. The sovereign now has the right of nature to do anything in its judgment or power, reason, to keep the peace. The longer we are in that state of nature we belong to political society and the sovereign power always remains in the state of nature. Independent sovereign powers with rights of nature is foreign politics. If its not your state its not in your nature: two ways to obtain sovereign power, natural force-submit or die, its by conquest. The argument why we need and obey government doesn"t change depending on which way we use.
