Construct model of ordered, free and just society - Essay Example

There are as many theories as there are grains of sand on the beach, but some ideas over the years have been more popular than others. Some people believe in socialism and that everyone must be made equal by the government, the tall cut down and the short pulled up; others believe in a meritocracy where those people who have talent and work hard are rewarded for their labours. Is there a way to combine these two ideas? It might be possible, but it is unlikely that this “best of both worlds” approach would yield a society as productive as one that fully embraced individual freedom and capitalism.

Thomas Hobbes is most famous for his book Leviathan. In it he argued that a “war of all against all” existed in nature and that people were mostly motivated by fear and distrust and that peoples’ motivations all conflicted with each other. The only way for order to prevail, Hobbes argued, would be through an absolute sovereign. Only a figure of immense power could guarantee the sorts of contracts people required with one another to live in peace. As Hobbes wrote, “The passions that incline men to peace, are fear of death; desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them” (46).

He believed that because people would do everything possible to preserve their lives and maximize their prosperity, there would be a constant battle between conflicting interests. In order to increase the order and prosperity of society as a whole, an absolute sovereign would have to make some minimum guarantees: namely, peace and the upholding of contracts. In this view of the world ethics must be imposed on human beings who are just animals red in tooth and claw and who live lives that are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

” While there is certainly some truth to what Hobbes says regarding human beings, other political thinkers have