Culture and ethical values - Essay Example

78). Each individual gives up his own power to the supreme sovereign, the ‘Leviathan’, whose authority is indivisible and unchallengeable. The ethic of self-preservation is the basic tenet of Hobbes’ framework. Because men cannot cooperate amongst themselves, the Leviathan is tasked with the protection of order, and its powers are unlimited. Such is the untrammeled power of the supreme sovereign – whether one man or an assembly – that it exercises the right of censorship over any and all expression and all property is subject to its laws.

For Hobbes, “rebellion is but war renewed” (2005, p. 195); he understands that the Leviathan could very well become tyrannical, yet he maintains that even the worst form of despotism is preferable to the anarchy and chaos of the state of nature. Rebellion against government, thus, is explicitly wrong, not only because it is destined to fail, but also because it sets a poor example (Russell, 2004, p. 506). The only reprieve that Hobbes provides for the citizens of his commonwealth is that of self-defense: self-preservation being the highest goal of an individual, he reserves the right to defend his person.

Any other means of resistance to government is culpable. Therefore, we can see that there is a very limited scope in Hobbes’ agenda to rebel against government: essentially, “Hobbes wants to show why we have to obey” (Harrison, 2003, p. 191). Hobbes’ fascination with authority and the unbridled faith he reposes in the sovereign are products, however, of how he feels a just society and a commodious existence can be best preserved. He “…insists that the natural condition [in the state of nature] is one of liberty, equality, and the most extensive individual rights imaginable.

He argues, however, that these free and equal people are in a condition of utter wretchedness and insecurity – not in spite of their liberty and