One of the opponents of liberal thinking, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, contributed significantly to liberal theory, although he favored strong and even unrestrained government. He argued that the sole test of government was its effectiveness rather than its basis in religion or tradition. Hobbes's pragmatic view of government, which stressed the equality of individuals, opened the way to free criticism of government and the right to revolution, ideas that Hobbes himself opposed. ... He insisted that the state should be supreme over the church and demanded universal religious toleration,...

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• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

The foundation of Hobbes' argument, as a result of this reasoning, is that he is able to compellingly claim that peace is unattainable on the rationale that humans are prone to this state of nature unless there is an established form of absolute government. ... Hobbes fist provides a set of laws, the laws of nature, which aim to guide human behavior towards self-preservation. Though there are many of them, we will focus mainly on the first three laws: the first being to seek peace, the second to make covenants or contracts, and the third simply to honor the covenants made. ... Therefor...

• Word Count: 1514
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Graduate

First being the insistence of the natural equality of all people in the commonwealth, second, by including maxims of moderation as part of the laws of nature, and lastly, by emphasizing the need to avoid war except as a last resort. ... Hayes stresses that Hobbes has built in his theories of moderate conduct in-laws four to ten in Leviathan, and that these laws are meant to try and close the gap between the rich and the poor through the engagement of mutual help between the classes through gratitude (4th Law), and the encouragement of each person to be sociable to one another by being willing ...

• Word Count: 1433
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

This is man's sovereign right to the power of nature is the power of God, which has sovereign right over all things and it is a sovereign law to self-preserve. ... He likens this state to that of a constant civil war under which people have lived under a government and suddenly descend into complete anarchy as there is no overarching power to contain them. ... These laws of are set by people of sovereign authority, and until they are made, everyone has the right to as he likes as there is no law they know of that forbids them during the time of war. ... And in pursuit of the first law o...

• Word Count: 2006
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate