Leviathan

As Hobbes’s treatise turns to matters of power and honor, the author’s influential political philosophy begins to take shape. Though much more will be written on the nature of power and commonwealths in Part 2, here Hobbes offers an early yet succinct explanation of the importance of sovereign states. He writes:

The greatest of human powers is that which is compounded of the powers of most men, united by consent, in one person, natural or civil, that has the use of all their powers depending on his will; such as is the power of a Commonwealth (50).

From there, Hobbes lists the many different types of power. Given that Hobbes asserts power finds its greatest expression in a commonwealth’s ability to protect itself from foreign armies, he counts creators and operators of instruments of war as among the most valuable—and thus most powerful—members of a sovereign state. In times of peace, he identifies honest and prudent judges as having exceptional worth. Thus, power and worth are conditional, excepting that of the sovereign ruler of a commonwealth whose power is absolute. In all cases, he writes, the public value placed on an individual is known as dignity.

One’s honor or dishonor, meanwhile, is a reflection of how much power a person is believed to possess.