Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan and Social Contract

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Authored Leviathan in 1651 during the English Civil War (1642–1651), shaping his views on human nature.
• Civil unrest and King Charles I's beheading led Hobbes to fear societal collapse.
• In a pre-political state, without government or laws, humans would constantly fight over resources.
• Life in the state of nature is described as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short".
• Human beings are driveb by self-interest and desire for power.
• Humans are inherently selfish, driven by self-preservation.
• Humans are rational, but primarily use their rationality for personal gain or avoiding harm.
• Absolute Sovereignty: a single, all-powerful ruler (monarch or an assembly), is needed to maintain peace and security.
• Social Contract: People give up freedoms to a sovereign in exchange for protection from chaos.
• Once power is granted to the sovereign there is no right to rebel, as rebellion leads to anarchy.
• Laid the groundwork for the social contract theory.
• Some critics view Hobbes as too pessimistic and that he dismisses cooperation without absolute rule.

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Authored Two Treatises of Government (1689) as a response to absolute monarchy theories like Hobbes's.
• The Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England limited monarchical power and strengthened Parliament.
• Believed people can live in relative peace, guided by reason and moral sense.
• Conflicts can still arise over property therefore requiring impartial judgment.
• Humans are rational and able to cooperate.
• Tabula Rasa (blank slate) is the idea that people are shaped by experience.
• Limited/Constitutional Government: The main role of government is to protect life, liberty, and property.
• If the government fails to protect these rights, citizens have the right to revolt.
• Advocated for separation of powers to prevent tyranny.
• Influenced liberal political philosophy and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
• Some argue Locke's ideas on property rights justified colonialism by claiming "unused" land is open for claiming.

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

• Authored The Wealth of Nations in 1776.
• The text is often considered the foundational text of modern economics.
• Shaped during the Enlightenment era which had emphasis on reason and individualism leading to the growth of merchant and industrial class in Britain.
• Specialization in tasks boosts efficiency and productivity.
• As an example: Pin factory workers dividing tasks leads to exponentially more pins being made than if each worker make one pin from start to finish.
• Laissez-Faire Economics: Minimal government intervention in the market.
• The role of the government should be limited to only protecting property rights, enforcing contracts, and providing public goods like defense and roads.
• The pursuit of self-interest in a free market promotes public good.
• Price mechanisms (supply and demand) regulate markets.
• Foundation of classical liberal economics.
• Critiques include the argument that completely free markets lead to monopolies, inequality, and worker exploitation.

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

• Authored An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) during the Industrial Revolution, when population increased.
• Population grows exponentially (1, 2, 4, 8...).
• Food supply grows arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4...).
• Without checks like famine, war, and disease, population will outstrip food supply.
• Preventive Checks: Moral restraint (ex: delaying marriage or birth control).
• Positive Checks: Famine, war, and disease reduce population when it becomes too large.
• Influenced debates on population control and resource management.
• Some say that Malthus didn't foresee technological advances in agriculture, which resulted in expanded food production..

Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism was inspired by Charles Darwin's biological theory of natural selection but misapplied to human societies.
• Herbert Spencer popularized the phrase "survival of the fittest".
• The claim that the "fittest" individuals or groups (economically/militarily) succeed in human society, while the "unfit" fail.
• Social Darwinism justified social hierarchies, imperialism, and laissez-faire capitalism.
• Once used to rationalize racism, eugenics, and colonial policies.
• Modern science rejects the direct application of Darwinian evolution to justify social inequalities.

Authoritarianism

• Power is concentrated in a single ruler or a small elite.
• Political freedoms are limited, which leads to strong control of the public sphere.
• Dissent is suppressed and political opposition is minimal to non-existent.
• Military dictatorships (i.e. Chile under Pinochet) and Absolute monarchies (i.e. Saudi Arabia) are examples of authoritarianism.
• Party-based authoritarian regimes (i.e. China under the Communist Party) are also examples of this.
• Propaganda, censorship, and secret police are methods of control.
• Fear and patronage networks are used to maintain power.

Fascism

• This is a far-right, ultranationalist ideology emphasizing loyalty to the state and leader.
• Core Features: Militarism, suppression of opposition, and a strong central leadership, which is often a dictator.
• Violence is glorified to strengthen the nation.
• Benito Mussolini's Italy (1922–1943) had the term "fascism" develop from Mussolini's movement.
• Adolf Hitler's Germany (1933–1945) had a variant of fascism with a racial component known as Nazism.
• Economics: Mixed economy under strict state control.
• Heavy propaganda to unite people under nationalist symbols and ideology.

Totalitarianism

• Totalitarianism is when the state seeks total control over all aspects of life (public and private).
• It is led by a charismatic dictator with a unifying ideology.
• There is Single-party rule and no opposition.
• There is also a Centralized economy (command economy in communist regimes, but can vary).
• Constant surveillance, indoctrination, and propaganda are used.
• Joseph Stalin's USSR had the Great Purge, Gulag system.
• Mao Zedong's China had policies like the Cultural Revolution, with severe restrictions on personal freedoms.

Neo-Fascism

• Neo-Fascism encompasses Post-World War II movements that revive or adapt fascist ideologies.
• Neo-Fascism has extreme nationalism, xenophobia, and authoritarian governance.
• Modern Examples include right-wing populist parties in various countries and utilizing modern media to communicate nationalism, anti-immigration policies, or anti-globalization.
• Adaptation to democratic structures allows Neo-Fascists to participate in elections.
• They use more subtle propaganda, with populist rhetoric and scapegoating minorities.

Liberalisms

• All the liberalisms can be broad.
• Classical Liberalism rose from Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith.
• Core Beliefs: Individual rights, private property, free markets, limited government.
• Modern Liberalism (Social Liberalism) evolved in the late 19th-early 20th centuries to address issues of inequality and worker protections.
• Core Beliefs: Government intervention in the economy to ensure basic welfare, social justice, and equality of opportunity.
• Neoliberalism was popular from the late 20th century onwards (1980s).
• Key Beliefs: Emphasis on deregulation, privatization, global free trade, and reduction of government spending on social services.
• Social Liberalism retains a focus on individual freedoms but supports more robust social policies.
• Social Democracy seeks social justice and is also often more open to extensive welfare states and regulated capitalism.

Scientific Revolution (16th-18th Century)

• Transitioning from the reliance of religious or ancient authority to empirical observation and scientific method.
• The revolution challenged Church doctrines on cosmology and physics.
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) developed the Heliocentric model (Earth orbits the Sun).
• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) improved the telescope, championed heliocentrism and faced the Inquisition.
• Isaac Newton (1642–1727) had laws of motion, universal gravitation, as well as the unification of terrestrial and celestial physics.
• There was the foundation of modern science (physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry).
• Rational thinking and the groundwork for the Enlightenment was encouraged.

Colonialism

• Colonialism: When a policy of acquiring maintains colonies or territories by a dominant power.
• Major European colonial empires consisted of ones spanning from the 16th to mid-20th century, such as Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, and the Netherlands.
• Colonization had economic (resource extraction, trade), religious (missionary work), and geopolitical reasons (power and influence).
• The “Civilizing mission" was used as justification, though it masked exploitation.
• Profound demographic changes occurred through colonization, as well as cultural blending/suppression, also with the exploitation of labor and resources.
• Independence movements arose in the 20th century due to colonization, leading to decolonization.

Industrial Revolution (18th–19th Century)

• The start was in Britain (late 1700s), but eventually spread Europe and North America in the 1800s.
• Technological innovations like the steam engine, spinning jenny, and power loom drove advancement.
• There was a shift from agrarian to industrial economies.
• There was a Growth of factories, urbanization, as well as a rise in a factory-based working class.
• New social classes: industrial capitalists and urban proletariat developed.
• Mass production, cheaper goods, growth of middle class, and technological progress developed as a result.
• Negative effects developed as well like poor working conditions, child labor, pollution, and urban crowding.

Natural Law & Natural Rights

• Philosophical belief is that there are certain moral and ethical principles that are inherent in human nature.
• These principles are universal and can be discovered through reason.
• Derived from natural law of which fundamental rights that every person is born with.
• John Locke's Version: Life, liberty, and property.
• Later influential in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson changed property to "the pursuit of happiness").
• Basis for many democratic constitutions and human rights doctrines (e.g., United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
• Continues to inform debates on civil liberties and the legitimacy of laws.