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

SOCIETY. ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 483
a sufficient number of his people feel disposed to obey him.
That people have no right to revolt is not true; they can
and will revolt directly they think that their interests will
be better served by getting rid of the existing sovereign
and establishing another y than by maitifrqjping him. What
is more, directly enough people do think this, the revolt
will succeed. As Hobbes himself very properly points out,
"The obligation of subjects to the Sovereign is understood
to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by
which lie is able to protect them"; he might have added,
"or as long as they find their interests better served by
maintaining than by deposing him."
That die sovereign represents -all the acts and wills of
his subjects and is, therefore, authorized to do whatsoever
he pleases is not true. If they revolt against him, it is
nonsense to say that the will with which they revolt is
the sovereign's own will to be revolted against, or that the
will which actuates the sovereign to suppress the revolt
is their own will to make the revolt unsuccessful. Finally,
if I am guided only by self-interest, I shall consent to
regard another man as representing me, only for so long
as I believe that it will serve my interest that he should do so.
Summary of Hobbes's Political Theory. The distinctive
and sensational features which are largely responsible
for the celebrity of Hobbes's political theory do not, if the
above criticisms are valid, follow from his psychological
premises. Indeed, they are for the most part inconsistent
with his premises. Stripped of these features, Hobbes's
political philosophy reveals itself as consisting of little
more than the commonplace assertion that order and
security in a community are best safeguarded by a strong
government, and that a government not subject to popular
control is liable to be stronger than a popularly elected
democratic government. These assertions may be true
but they are not very novel, and they constitute an
exiguous foundation for the formidable edifice which
Hobbes erected upon them. On the ethical side it is, I