GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

474
POLITICS
from his solipsistic theory of knowledge. 1 Completely enclosed
within the circle of his own states of mind, man
is lonely and his loneliness drives him to congregate with
his fellows in order that the possibilities of communication,
which a common language affords, may provide him with
a means of escape from himself. But man being what he
is, a mere agreement to live peaceably together in society
is not sufficient, since any man would break the. agree*
ment when he saw a chance of doing so to his own
advantage. There must, then, be "a common power to keep
them in awe and to direct their actions to the common
benefit". This "common power" is brought into being
as the result of a compact by the terms of which every
member of the community gives up his natural rights and
powers to a man, or to a body of men, in whom the united
power of all is henceforth vested. Each man, that is to
say, gives up his own right of self-government on condition
that every other man does the same. The repository of all
these individual powers is conceived of as a new individual
person endowed with supreme power. "He that carrieth
this person," writes Hobbes, "is called sovereign and hath
sovereign powers; and everyone besides, his subject."
Consequences of Hobbes's Doctrine: Theory of Sovereignty.
Since men came into society in order to obtain
security, and since the maintenance of the common power
of the sovereign over them all is the condition of their
security, the power of the sovereign may not be challenged
or modified. Revolt in a society is, therefore, to
be regarded as impossible, not so much on practical, as
on psychological grounds. For, so long as the sovereign is
absolutely supreme, he is fulfilling the purpose which led
men to vest their individual powers in him, the purpose,
namely, of giving them security. Since our decisions are
determined for us and not by us, and since the desire for
security is a law of our being, we cannot, Hobbes main*
tained, desire to do anything which will infringe the condi-
1 See Chapter X, p. 353, for a reference to this.