Soc Sci 2

Question 1

Who was abandoned by his father at an early age; was brough up by his uncle

Answer 1

Thomas Hobbes

Question 2

He studied at the University of Oxford at 15 years old

Answer 2

Thomas Hobbes

Question 3

He experienced the turbulent half of the seventeenth century in England (conflict between royalists and Parliamentarians )

Answer 3

Thomas Hobbes

Question 4

He sought refuge in France because of his association with royalist circles (he was the tutor to Charles II of Wales) and his antiparliamentarian writings

Answer 4

Thomas Hobbes

Question 5

He was a defender of an absolute government

Answer 5

Thomas Hobbes

Question 6

He wrote the Leviathan (1651) before he returned to England

Answer 6

Thomas Hobbes

Question 7

Highlights Thomas Hobbes’ anti-parliamentarian, pro-royalist views

Answer 7

Leviathan (1651)

Question 8

This work has often been interpreted as a defense for a despotic and absolutist regime

Answer 8

Leviathan (1651)

Question 9

Referred as ”the first general theory of politics in the English language” (Ebenstein and Ebenstein, 1990),

Answer 9

Leviathan (1651)

Question 10

A reflection of Hobbes’ political theory, which rests on a theory of human nature

Answer 10

Leviathan (1651)

Question 11

What are the four theories of human nature?

Answer 11

1. Man are equal
2. Man is unsociable
3. Man is selfish
4. Man is rational

Question 12

What are the three definitions of man that are equal?

Answer 12

in the faculties of mind and body;
in the hope of achieving goals (same desires);
in the exercise of man’s natural right to self-preservation

Question 13

Man is not naturally sociable because if he were, then societies would evolve naturally. Societies are created through conscious decisions among men.

Answer 13

Man is unsociable

Question 14

For the preservation of their lives and the protection of their self-interests

Answer 14

Man is selfish

Question 15

Reason is possessed by men in general, even when they are in a state of nature

Answer 15

Man is rational

Question 16

It refers to the condition of men prior to the creation of societies

Answer 16

State of nature

Question 17

For Hobbes, it is a condition of war of all against all (competition, diffidence, and glory)

Answer 17

State of nature

Question 18

Two cardinal virtues

Answer 18

fraud and force

Question 19

There is no central authority; the only recourse is _________

Answer 19

self-help

Question 20

_________ are predisposed to war; they treat each other as enemies

Answer 20

Men

Question 21

The situation is dominated by ________

Answer 21

fear and danger

Question 22

The social contract is _____________ that would somehow lessen the insecurity of man in the state of nature

Answer 22

the creation of a political association

Question 23

It is an ___________________ among men that they will transfer their natural rights (except for the right to one’s own body) to a sovereign entity (the “Leviathan”)

Answer 23

agreement/contract/covenant

Question 24

Entering the social contract results into the creation of a __________ which was previously absent in the state of nature

Answer 24

central authority

Question 25

It also results into the creation of a _________________

Answer 25

commonwealth

Question 26

The basis of the consent of the subjects in forming a Commonwealth is _________________: staying in the state of nature with all its chaos and insecurity would further endanger the life of man

Answer 26

compulsion

Question 27

Staying in the state of nature with all its chaos and insecurity would further endanger the life of man

Answer 27

Voluntary transfer of rights (following man’s rational decisions)
Mutual transfer of rights (reciprocity); give up right to independent judgment
The sovereign is not a party to the contract: the social contract is an agreement among the subjects themselves

Question 28

What are the 8 sovereign of power

Answer 28

1. The power given to the sovereign is indivisible and non-transferable.
2. The sovereign cannot break the agreement because he is not a party to it.
3. The covenant is agreed upon by a majority of men; those who initially disagreed must now consent with the rest.
4. The sovereign cannot do any injustice because men are the authors of its actions.
5. The subjects cannot punish and/or kill the sovereign.
6. The sovereign has the right to regulate doctrine, which is important for maintaining peace.
7. The sovereign enjoys the power to lay down civil laws.
8. The sovereign has the right to decide on cases of conflict of law.

Question 29

Do the subjects have the right to resist the sovereign?

Answer 29

1. The nature of the contract does not give the subjects the right to resist
2. The decision to resist must be done on an individual basis because subjects only gain a collective will through the sovereign

Question 30

Will the subjects resist the sovereign?

Answer 30

Remember the state of nature!

Question 31

What types of government did Hobbes mention?

Answer 31

Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy

Question 32

He was born to a middle-class family

Answer 32

John Locke

Question 33

He attended Oxford in 1652 and studied philosophy and science

Answer 33

John Locke

Question 34

He went on self-exile in Holland (Netherlands) from 1683 - 1689 to escape political persecution from Charles II

Answer 34

John Locke

Question 35

Laws of nature of Hobbes

Answer 35

1. Man must “seek peace and follow it” to preserve his right of nature.
2. Men should give up the “right to all things”, when others also do so, to attain peace (reciprocity)
3. Men should perform covenants made (justice) with a ”fear of the sword” [fear of punishment] plus sixteen other laws of nature aimed at maintaining peace through a common power

Question 36

He returned to England in 1689 after the end of Glorious Revolution

Answer 36

John Locke

Question 37

He wrote to defend the supremacy of the Parliament

Answer 37

John Locke

Question 38

His main work is entitled “Two Treatises of Civil Government”

Answer 38

John Locke