Bertrand Russell's critique of Hobbes' Leviathan

Russell writes that Hobbes sees the government, or the "Leviathan," as a rightfully powerful entity which arises out of sacred roots: "The sovereignty is an artificial soul. The pacts and covenants by which 'Leviathan' is first created take the place of God's fiat when He said 'Let Us make man'" (548). To Hobbes, the Leviathan is a natural and necessary outcome of man's terrible war-ridden condition in the brutish state of nature. All that flows from Hobbes in terms of defining and defending the great power of the Leviathan flows from his belief that such a terrible state of war, force and fraud (550) must be avoided at all costs. Men, says Hobbes, "escape from these evils [in the state of nature] by combining into communities each subject to a central authority. This is represented as happening by means of a social contract" (550).

This social contract is the basis for government and for the great power of the Leviathan. Human beings agree to give up certain rights in order to escape from the state of constant war in nature. These rights accrue to the government, to the Leviathan, which becomes, in effect, "a mortal God" (551).

. . .
e private interest of their members (552). Hobbes, says Russell, oversimplifies the concept of democracy in order to reject it wholesale. Hobbes, says Russell, "conceives democracy, in the manner of antiquity, as involving the direct participation of every citizen in legislation and administration" (552). Certainly, the intervening centuries have taught us today that democracy of a much more limited and realistic sort is not only possible but far more desirable than the dictatorial sovereign favored and defended by Hobbes. Hobbes oversimplified his portrait of democracy in order to reject it, suggesting that democracy required citizen involvement at every stage of governmental decision, an involvement that would effectively paralyze the government. However, we have witnessed far more limited and reasonable citizen involvement along democratic lines since Hobbes' time. We have seen that this limited democracy is indeed a means of preventing or reducing corruption, self-interest and abuses of power by the various leaders of the government. At the root of Hobbes' oversimplification of the split between the state of nature and the state under the sovereign is his distrust of the people. He believes that there exists either a sta
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hobbes Hobbes, Leviathan Human, Hobbes Leviathan, Hobbes' Leviathan, Hobbes Russell, Finally Russell, Leviathan Hobbes, social contract, Bertrand Russell's, Hobbes's Leviathan, , war chaos, defining defending, government leviathan, democracy reject, distrust people, hobbes russell, people result, power leviathan, citizen involvement,
Approximate Word count = 1269
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)