Machiavelli Vs Thomas Hobbes Essay

Thomas Hobbes was a famous english philosopher that believed in absolute monarchy. Bluntly put, Hobbes believed that, by nature, people were too chaotic and to easily divulged into corruption to rule or govern themselves. Along with this, Hobbes believed that, with full freedom, people would naturally become chaotic and lead to the full eradication of civilized society. With this view on human nature, Hobbes argued that people had put their a faith into a single leader, referred to as the Leviathan, that would rule them and make the decisions for their society for them. In Ancient mythology, a Leviathan is a sea creature that was so massive and powerful that it ruled over the ocean unchallenged. Hobbes saw many of the traits of this monster as desirable for the all powerful leader he believed should rule society. This leader will have full sovereign power over the nation, allowing him to do as he wishes with the nation, as long as his movements are …show more content…
With the boom of democracy, Hobbes ideals seemed rather classical. Hobbes views were very similar to the ones on 15th century Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s governmental system was also based on human corruption and the idea that multiple sources of chaos must be quenched by a single chaos, very similar to Hobbes. Machiavelli supported the idea that people need to be ruled by a single ruler that could help govern the nature of humanity. This idea is identical with Hobbes, and serves as the main point of Hobbes’s philosophy on government. Both Hobbes and Machiavelli argued that a ruler must also do what he must in order to bring peace to a unstable people. While Hobbes express it to well, his ideals seem to support Machiavelli's ideals of being as ruthlessness as needed in bringing order to society. On human nature and the idea of a sovereign leader of the masses, Hobbes and Machiavelli are very