Okay so this is a late post on the Leviathan but here it is… Hobbes seems to have conflicting religious views since he is saying one thing but acting another. He seems to be Christian but says that he does not believe in incorporeal existence. This leads to believe that Hobbes may not be Christian, but actually closer to a deist. As we talked about this last week, deism is, by definition, believing in the existence of a higher being, but one that does not exert as much influence or intervention in the ways of the universe. Hobbes could not be called a Christian if he does not believe in angels, demons, or spirits of any kind. Also, Hobbes believes that religious and political power should be maintained by one individual. Thus, this means that Hobbes was pro Magna Carta. Though supporting the Magna Carta does not mean that he cannot be Christian in belief, Hobbes discredits Christianity by saying incorporeal existence cannot be.
Hello, I’m leaving a comment. It sounds like you have nice ideas, I would have liked a little bit more development. Also, what is the Magna Carta we didn’t see any of this in the seminars…
Cheers,
Bruno
Hi, thanks for leaving a comment! To explain,the Magna Carta is a charter of liberties to which the English barons forced King John to sign the charter on June 1215 at Runnymede. It became to mean a document constituting a fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges. This allowed the people, subjects, to have more power as compared to when they used to have none. Because it has to do with leveling authority, Hobbes would probably support the Magna Carta. Thus, Hobbes is probably in favor of the people having some power to balance the status quo. I hope this helped and thanks for reading!
That’s very helpful, Christel, because I, too, wasn’t sure what the Magna Carta was (I have heard of it, but forgot what it was). Still, I’m not yet seeing how giving the people more power fits with Hobbes’ view. I would have thought, on the face of it, that he would want power to be concentrated in the sovereign (in that case, a monarch) rather than in the people?
On another note, could you activate the plugin that allows those who are commenting to check a box to get an email if there are any replies? Because otherwise the people who comment won’t know if you have replied unless they remember to come back to the site. When you’re logged into your dashboard, go to “plugins” on the left menu, then find “subscribe to comments” and click “activate” next to that.