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Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
The dissolution of a common-wealth is usually due to the “Imperfect Institution” from which it comes, and these “infirmities” or “diseases” resemble those of the human body. One such infirmary is when a sovereign power is content with less power than what they actually possess to defend and protect a common-wealth. Power can be denied by ignorance, or it can be denied intentionally for some benefit to the sovereign power. Disease in the common-wealth is also caused by the belief that individual subjects can determine good actions from bad actions. As a common-wealth is not a state of nature, only the sovereign power and civil laws can determine good actions from bad. Similarly, assuming that what is against one’s conscience must be a sin is also damaging to the common-wealth. It is up to the common-wealth, not a subject’s conscience, to determine what actions are sinful.
Again, Hobbes draws a parallel between a living body and a common-wealth, which suggests that a common-wealth vulnerable to all the things a body is. A common-wealth is an “Imperfect Institution” because it is made up of people, who are imperfect by nature. According to Hobbes, humans are by nature self-centered and violent, which are two of the “diseases” that can bring down a common-wealth. For instance, if a sovereign power acts only in their own best interest (as people are wont to do) and ignores its subjects’ needs, a common-wealth cannot stand.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
The belief that faith is obtained by “supernaturall Inspiration” and not “Study and Reason” is also damaging to a common-wealth, and so is holding a sovereign power subject to civil laws. A sovereign power is not a subject of the common-wealth; thus, a sovereign power cannot be held to the same laws as a subject. Furthermore, if every subject is given absolute right to their own goods and property that exclude the rights of the sovereign, it is also detrimental to a common-wealth’s health. Exclusion of the sovereign confuses the sovereign’s position of power over subjects and begins to slowly dissolve the balance of power.
With Hobbes’s reference to “supernaturall Inspiration,” he implies that religion can be damaging to a common-wealth if one’s faith is not a product of “Study and Reason.” Hobbes argues one should not blindly submit to the faith of another, but should instead acquire faith independently through the study of scripture and one’s own ability to reason. According to Hobbes, one who blindly follows the faith of another will believe anything, which is not in the best interest of the common-wealth.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
The dividing of a sovereign power is also harmful to the common-wealth and is fundamentally against the purpose of the common-wealth. To divide a power is to destroy the unity of the common-wealth and the covenant that binds them together as one. The imitation of other common-wealths, such as those belonging to the Greeks and the Romans, is also harmful to the health and maintenance of a common-wealth, as such societies believed the killing of a king lawful if said king was deemed a tyrant.
Just as some doctors claim every person has three souls, some people argue that a common-wealth, too, has more than one soul. In some cases, there are two common-wealths inhabited by the same subjects. But, Hobbes says, “a Kingdome divided in it selfe” cannot stand. The distinction between a “Temporall” common-wealth and a “Ghostly” common-wealth gives every subject two masters, and one cannot follow two masters at one time without contradicting one or the other. In this “disease,” there is an “unnaturall spirit” that acts on the nerves of the soul and brain of the common-wealth that is bound to result in oppression and war.
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A common-wealth that is too large can also be harmful, as large common-wealths require large armies and corporations, which are like “many lesser Common-wealths in the bowels of a greater, like wormes in the entrayles of a natural man.” In war, if the common-wealth is not the victor, the common-wealth is automatically dissolved.
