The Political Theory of Thomas Hobbes: The Sovereign and the State

We all live in states today, and Thomas Hobbes has a good claim to have been the first person to articulate this concept in its modern sense. The intention of Hobbes’s civil science was to lower the temperature of politics, and his concept of ‘the state’ does this by standing as a fictitious entity, distinct from both the rulers who hold office and the population over whom rule is exercised. Ironically, once this concept was combined with the later concept of ‘the nation’, producing ‘the nation-state’, the result has often been to raise the temperature of politics to catastrophic levels.

Director and Animator: Grant Harding

Writer and Producer: Dr Ryan Walter, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland

[Danobot]

Underrated video. Deserves millions more views.

[CodenameRockerika]

I wish there was one of these for Locke. I've not seen a better video for getting from "state of nature" to "sovereign" concisely and with good production value and detail.

[meawwow]

Who made this video. . .Is there a series??
Please make it a series
Loved the flow and animations in the video, the director, animator knew and understood the subject❤️

[farooqr]

Beautifully illustrated. I came to know about Thomas Hobbes recently as a result of listening to a podcast and was intrigued by his philosophy. I always thought that humans were better off living with nature, that as a result of laws and rules we have lost our way of being human but listening to Hobbes I came to a realization that nature is concerned about survival. Survival could mean killing and others taking advantage of the weak. To live in a society rules and laws are essential. Looking to read his book, Leviathan. Thank you for this video.

[gabyandrews]

Super informative and easy to follow; great video!

[waistcoat]

the animations made me laugh :) :) thanks! :D

[MAHADEVAARADHY]

The animation was so cool I forgot to understand the concept.

[kingmj]

Recommending "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker. It's a short story about the Leviathan made flesh.

[ChunkyAppleCider]

Thomas Hobbes over here tryna get vore'd by the state

[MagicBrianTricks]

This video makes an error. In most states, and I mean actual states, Hobbes' sovereign is the constitution of the state.

[aclark]

#Augustine may not have described the state in such terms, but his political philosophy in #DeCivitateDei precedes Hobbes by about a 1000 years ..

[MidlifeCrisisJoe]

"Who is sovereign? The People, the Legislature, or the Judges, blah blah blah."
The Judges. It's the Judges.
They get to define power whenever it is tested, therefore they get to decide what is an exception and what is not. Therefore they have sovereignty.

[scytale]

There shouldn't be a written constitution. Just statutory law.

[aussiereuben]

The conclusion that Australia is doing alright with its devided sovereignty is not universally supported. PS: the UK Parliament has been sovereign since the 1660 restoration where the ‘King reigns but does not rule’. The Australian Parliament is a subsidiary of this arrangement, copying the existing model and making a subsidiary of it (Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK)) whereby the Commonwealth Parliament is the sovereign, save its being subject to the UK Parliament, and again the King reigns but does not rule.

[Wraithninja]

The richest is the the sovereign now. They can buy favorable legislation

[GeorgWilde]

You didn't even mention the army and the police.

[ElParacletoPodcast]

Terrible idea, the only true free way is, the free market capitalist way, with laws, but no government.

[kleineitalien]

Lol, the guy argued with a fable to "justify" the state's existence and people actually bought this stupid idea.