Leviathan's Conudrum

1). In Pinker’s “The Blank Slate” I found a passage from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan which has and always will contradict my own examination on the world. Thomas Hobbes states,

“Hereby it is manifest that during the time when men live

without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are

in that condition which is called war, and such a war is of every

man against every man.… In such condition there is no

place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and

consequently… no arts, no letters, no society, and which is

worst of all, a continual fear and danger of violent death,

and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

2). This passage from Hobbes’s Leviathan has always interested me and has always contradicted my own thoughts since I first read it in a Global Studies course. Hobbes’s perspective on the human condition and the human experience lacks the depth and opportunities that I have seen throughout my life and what we have seen throughout millennia. Understandings what is meant by having a “common power” has always been a point of contention because is Hobbes saying the police force and government or rather some common purpose of human life in which we all strive to complete. It is safe to assume that whatever this common purpose or power that Hobbes describes is not universally shared. Humans are the (in our own calculations) the most evolved species on the planet, with each person having a unique set of experiences that have shaped and molded their thoughts about earth and their perspective of their fellow humans. Perhaps what has guided me most towards this feeling and opposition of a Common power is my opposition of religion and God. To me, Leviathan and the thought that humans need to be controlled by some unified power demeans and belittles the human experience and the human condition. Additional, the eternal optimist in me also rejects the notion of a common power.

3). I suppose the biggest fear and, perhaps, the source of my opposition to the selected passage comes from the fear of being wrong. Perhaps my rejection of the idea of the common power is because I fear the distinct possibility of being wrong. Perhaps evidence of this common power is the millions of humans that flock to religion over the past thousands of years in search for this comfort and protection. I can see how from this quote and reading the Pinker article how I have found myself entrenched in the ‘Science Wars’. As much as science would like to attribute genetics and bodily reactions to explain the actions and reactions of humans there seems to be the element of experience missing. In the end, does it really matter at all what we think about common powers? Common powers exist and have always existed to control the masses. Does this mean we should destroy every institution regarding them? No. I am not sure I am arguing that either, but what I do hope to achieve through this is a larger sense of accomplishment and pride in the abilities of humans to impact and influence the lives of ourselves and those around us through compassion and not out of fear.