Absolute Authority In Thomas Hobbes Leviathan

The Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes scrupulously argues that peace and unity among civilians and society can only be possible through the establishment of a commonwealth via a social contract According to Hobbes, any lasting political authority should be granted with absolute authority to ensure the well-being of the system. Throughout this essay I will identify and explain the main points of Hobbes’s argument against a divided authority, which he likens to a “Defectuous Procreation”.
Firstly, Hobbes advocates that for a government (of any form) to be effective, they should possess absolute authority over all. The powers of legislation and enforcement for example must be neither divided nor limited. An effective government needs to establish and consistently maintain absolute authority for the safety the commonwealth, in so doing, the safety of the sovereign. If each individual is to

Hence, if every private individual was to be his own judge of what is good and evil, debates and disputes would arise concerning what the sovereign has decreed regarding actions in the prior regards. The commonwealth would thus be distracted and weakened by everyone’s own personal judgement of whether the sovereign is right or wrong, and whether to obey the laws or not.
Thirdly, Hobbes contends that if the individuals in the commonwealth hold the mistaken belief that one’s individual conscience (morality) should always take precedence over civil duty, thus by being their own moral judge of what is good and evil in their sense, could prove the sovereign to ruin. He claims that our conscience and judgment is the same thing, thus if our judgments were impaired so too can our conscience be incorrect in what we establish for ourselves. Hence, the law is the public conscience by which the commonwealth must adhere