1. The New Science of Politics
Thomas Hobbes & the Social Contract

2. New v. Old Sciences of Politics
Old Science of Politics
Plato v. Aristotle
Man by nature political
Political orders teleological
Power, authority as rule
Power limited only by the telos of the city
Justice depends on the telos of the city
For Platonists, only one best regime: the Philosopher King
For Aristotelians, several possible virtuous cities
New Science of Politics
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Jefferson
Man by nature equal to all other men
Political orders established out of necessity
No rulers but the rule of law
Power limited by law or by necessity
Justice depends on accordance with law & the public good

3. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English clergyman & philosopher of Law
Interpretation of society central to English idea of sovereignty
Witness to:
The English Civil War
Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth
Richard Cromwell’s Protectorate
The Restoration of the English Monarchy

4. Hobbes and Human Nature
“Nature has made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another…the difference between man and man is not so considerable that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.” (Part 1, Chapter 13)
What?

5. Try again…
“Nature has made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another…the difference between man and man is not so considerable that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.” (Part 1, Chapter 13)
Nature
men
equal
difference
not so considerable

6. Prudence = experience; Equal time + equal application g equal prudence
Equal how?
“That which may perhaps make such equality incredible is but a vain conceit of one’s own wisdom, which almost all men think they have in a greater degree than the vulgar.”
Equality of mind:
Prudence = experience; Equal time + equal application g equal prudence
Equality of strength:
The weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest
Remember Machiavelli?
“In this world there is none but the vulgar.” (The Prince, Ch. 18)