Man In Hobbesian Political Philosophy

How should one live? Or is there an ideal reality in the human world? If so,how can such a life be realized,and if the answer is no,how should one live? Around this question,philosophers,politicians,or jurists who put forward a normative understanding of their social life put forward their own opinions.In short,the answer cannot be separated from the questioning of people’s life and the exploration of their own internal perspective.Since Plato in ancient Greece,philosophers have tried to find a universal ideal paradigm for governing the state,and the opposite political realism is gradually developed in Thucydides’ political history of the Peloponnesian War.In historical practice,conflict,war,liberation and revolution did not end when human beings established a political system or legal norms.To what extent we can understand the nature of human life or how to start the real life of human beings becomes an eternal practical question.Hobbes,a widely recognised figure in modern political philosophy,answered the question of his time: the inevitability of war implies the inevitability of the establishment of the state.Only on the premise of peace and order guaranteed by the absolute sovereignty of the state can man find an orderly and explainable life.Hobbes sought a justification for the peaceful life of human reality,namely the absolute rule of the state.In response to the Christian tradition of ancient Greek and Roman writers and scriptural philosophy,Hobbes boldly rejected it and began to argue for the necessary requirements of realpolitik,building his own Leviathan.The paper is divided into five sections:The introduction briefly introduces Hobbes’ s time and the realities he faced,and explains Hobbes’ s consistent approach to his theory of thought,thus raising the question of the relationship between ‘man’ and ‘state’ in Hobbes’ theory and explaining The significance of the chosen topic is explained.Based on the research of scholars at home and abroad,the philosophical problems of the state that are the focus of this paper are understood in a number of small theoretical ways,such as exploring the political implications of Hobbes’ analysis of passion,the human nature of the state of nature doctrine,and the Hobbesian interpretation of the concept of freedom.This paper attempts to present the basic face of the ‘person’ as Leviathan’s creator and the process of its shaping.Within the general framework of the relationship between the individual and the state,Hobbes’ idea of citizenship is analysed and studied along the analytical path of the natural man—the subject—the citizen.This section concludes with a clarification of the research methodology and a structural framework.The first chapter will first attempt to demonstrate the content and characteristics of the theory of the state of nature,Leviathan’s predecessor,by focusing on the person of nature as such.Starting with an analysis of the natural man himself,the two main aspects of human nature,passion and reason,are discussed separately,with a focus on the concept of fear,which is central to Hobbesian humanism.The question of how the natural man,the ‘material’ of Leviathan,can live with himself in the world is discussed.In order to overcome the uncertainty of life,the natural man reins in his natural rights,and the formation of a natural order results in the creation of a contractual state and the beginning of civic life.The birth of Leviathan signifies the transformation of the natural man into a citizen,and a clear understanding of the causes and consequences of this transformation is a prerequisite for the development of subsequent theoretical questions of citizenship.This is followed by the second chapter,which deals with the content of Hobbes’ theory of citizenship,the central theme of the paper,which is summarised as a dialectic between right and order.On the one hand,at the level of the establishment of the state,this is the argument for the relationship between protection and obedience,which is found particularly in legal norms.In Hobbes’ theory of protection and obedience,protection and obedience presuppose each other,the purpose of obedience is protection,and protection and obedience must be based on consent: the starting and ending points are the security and freedom of the individual.In this respect,Hobbes moves away from the traditional classical political philosophy of ‘protection’ and ‘obedience’ and constructs a new theory of law that includes ‘man’ and ‘state’.The state is a new theory of law.On the other hand,it discusses the inner meaning of Hobbesian citizenship from a political-historical perspective of civil rights,recognising that the disassociation of the citizen’s reason means the collapse of the Leviathan.In contrast to the ‘healthy’ Leviathan,Hobbes presents the image of the ‘Behemoth’ as a macrocosmic description of the decay of communal life.In response to the crisis of Behemoth,Hobbes’ salvation lies in the call for citizens to seek the discipline and teaching of the sovereign,and to reassert a sense of individual(universal)freedom and rights.This brings Hobbes’ philosophy of citizenship to a close.The third chapter is a second development of the concept of citizenship,a discussion of how the Hobbesian citizen,as a Hobbesian citizen,confronts the political problems of the state.There is a ‘cooperation’ between the citizen and the state in terms of domination and submission under the order,but also a ‘game’ between the positions of right and power,which is,in a larger sense,a prisoner’s dilemma that is difficult to resolve.How can we,as human beings,live with this contradiction? How do we face the ‘inevitable’ of community life? These are the thoughts that run through this essay.The modernisation of the state is also the modernisation of man.When studying state sovereignty,political institutions,social contracts and legal norms,the subjective element of the human being cannot be separated.From the natural man to the subjection of the Leviathan to the Hobbesian ideal of the state citizen,the transformation of man’s identity,the transformation of individual rights to state power,the struggle of rights to obligations of obedience,and the choice of a communal form of life,the discussion of these issues is necessarily also a discussion of the process of shaping man.The concluding section of the paper shows Hobbes answering the questions of his time.It is the tension between right and power,public good and private interest,freedom and equality,in which modern politics and legal practice are constantly confronted,and the contradictory tensions presented by man,that Hobbes’ ‘science of man’ has always sought to address.The quest for peace and order,the theoretical understanding from the natural man to the modern citizen,is undoubtedly of great theoretical significance and practical value for an in-depth understanding of the logic of the development of political and legal modernity and the debate on the core issues of legal philosophy,as well as the ultimate vision of the life of the human community.Hobbes answered the question of his time and laid a solid foundation for the modern theory of citizenship and the doctrine of the state.In practical terms,it is only by completing the joint construction of the modern citizen and the state that man can pursue a better reality as a better human being.