»Dabei wird Hobbes' LEVIATHAN anschaulich.« Gulliver's Travels an illustration of Leviathan? At first glance this seemed to me an idea that shed new light on the two classics. After re-reading both I find it superficial, beside the point and even misleading. Such harsh words about a word from the Master call for elaboration. So this will become a note longer than usual, and I am going to post it in instalments. 1. What is LEVIATHAN about? If Swift had deliberately set out to illustrate Hobbes he would have had to be versatile. LEVIATHAN is a book with quite a few facets. It is best known as a theory of the state. But this is not all. Hobbes throws in a theory of thinking, a theory of language, a theory of reason, a rigorously schematic psychology, a theory of the basic rights of man [which is a far cry from civil rights as we know them]. On top of all that, the second half of the book treats, by way of countless quotations from Holy Scripture, of the church hierarchy and of its role within the civil state. EJ obviously did not mean that Swift attempted to illustrate all those heterogeneous parts of Leviathan. It is more probable that it was only the basic idea that Swift might have illustrated with his narrative. So what is the basic idea of LEVIATHAN? In spite of the formal complexity of the treatise its basic argument is simple. The starting point is a psychology that aims at reducing the chaotic multiplicity of feelings and drives in humans to a mechanism obeying a first principle. Such a mechanism may then be analysed in terms of generally applicable, thus plausible laws. Hobbes rejects outright the idea that the ancients, particularly Plato, have put forward as the answer to the question: What is the ultimate goal of all human endeavour? Plato, prophet of a religion of the spirit, said, it was »the repose of a mind satisfied«. Hobbes sets against this a drastically different first principle, radically materialist: all human activity is rooted in the drive for self-preservation. Long before Nietzsche he states that the result is a »perpetual and restless desire of power«. Wherever humans lived together outside a state this would cause what has become to many minds the trademark of Hobbes, the »bellum omnium contra omnes«, a war »where every man is enemy to every man«. Every individual, in order to survive, has to claim all rights and to make use of all means within his reach to fend off and even subdue the others. An intolerable situation indeed, not unlike the situation in a gold diggers' camp when the rush has just started. The basic cause of that war is the absence of any power which everybody respects. Once the office of the sheriff and a court of justice are established the rule of law and order in the camp is guaranteed by an independent institution based on general consent. Now everybody can mind his own private business, stake out his claims and dig in safety. If conflicts arise they will no longer be resolved by individuals fighting it out but will be referred to the new authority. According to Hobbes, this is what happens when any stable human society starts. It is rational insight that leads men to this rational solution. By his own decision, a free man gives up part of his hitherto unlimited rights---on the one condition that all others do the same. The rights thus voluntarily relinquished by every individual are transferred to one man or one institution. The bellum omnium contra omnes is over, the state, the Leviathan, has sprung into existence. It is based on what the political scientists call the social contract, and it is the basis of every civilized society, i.e. a society which has an authority obeyed by all. It does not matter whether this authority is a tyrant or an elected parliament. Hobbes created the grand theoretical design, other minds like Thomas Jefferson or Lenin filled in the details later. [To be continued] -------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Günter Rebing Hügel 20 D-53359 Rheinbach Tel./Fax 02226-3980 Mobil 0177-5961331 E-Mail: g.rebing@eplus-online.de und Rebing@t-online.de
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