diffidence, brings men into competition with one another. The
competition, in the state of nature becomes the basis for the
anarchy that exists in the state of nature. Each man has the right
to pursue his own goals. This places him in competition with
others, and since each man is roughly equal to another, serious
conflicts develop, and without rules anarchy reigns.
Man, then, is an animal like all others, albeit a much more
complex one. Hobbes sees man as an animal in the state of
nature, where the survival of the fittest is the rule. Thus, the first
and most important natural law is the law of self preservation.
This concept of natural law is quite different from the idea of
natural law as a law of morality. All men desire peace, but their
basic inclination for power puts them in conflict with all other
men. Hobbes contends, then, that the state of nature is the state
of war. The anarchy of the state of nature must give way to the
authority of an artificial state, or there will be no culture,
knowledge, art, literature, or society, and all men will live in
“continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man
(will be) solitary, poor, nasty, and short.”
But man has intelligence; he can reason. That ability to think
leads him to realize that the state of nature, while allowing him
his natural rights, deprives him of the benefits that peace can
provide. To insure peace, men enter into a contract in which they
give up the natural right to self-preservation to an entity power
ful enough to protect each individual from those who would
abuse him. This social contract is the basis for Hobbes’ govern
ment, where, in trade for their very lives, the people relinquish
their natural rights to a sovereign power. For this sovereign to
exercise the power necessary to protect the members of the
community, he must be above the law, with the absolute author
ity to act in accordance with the contract. The sovereign may be
an individual or an assembly, but in terms of personal preference
Hobbes opts for a sovereign individual. Because of this prefer
ence Hobbes has been called the philosopher of Absolute Mon
archy.
What then, in the most simple terms, does this contract do? It
gives absolute power to a monarch to protect the lives of his
subjects. It gives the people the ability to live in the peace of civil
society without fear of returning to the state of nature. The
responsibility of the subject is to obey the laws; the responsibil
162 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the State