Hobbes' Concept of the Necessity of a Government

An imposter might set up me in a play, speechmaking and acting as though he were me. In either case, the lawyer or doer is "bearing my soulfulness." As Hobbes puts it:

So that a Person, is the same that an impostor is, both on the Stage and in common conversation; and to Personate, is to Act, or Represent himselfe, or an other; and he that acteth a nonher, is state to bear his Person, or act in his name ... and is called in diverse occasions, diversly, as a Representer, or deputy, a Lieutenant, a Vicar, an Attorney, a Deputy, a Procurator, an Actor, and the like (pp. 217-18).

The lawyer or sham, or checkative, is an "artificial" mortal, speaking or acting on behalf of the soulfulness represented. He would be a natural psyche if he were speaking for himself, but artificial when speaking for somevirtuoso else, as a lawyer does in court or an actor on stage. The person who is being represented is, in Hobbes' terms, the " generator" of the representative's speech or actions. "Of Persons Artificiall, some have their words and actions have by those whom they represent. And then the Person is the Actor; and he that owneth his words and actions, is the AUTHOR" (p. 218).

This fashion that the person who is being represented by an actor or representative is the wholeness who is responsible for what the actor says or does. When we watch a play or movie, we argon meant to trust of the character as doing things. Only afterwards do we usually think about whether the

What Hobbes seems to mean is that the sovereign government agency can invite citizenry to petition for something, and tear down choose "representatives" for that purpose. However, the sovereign authority is not bound by whatever they petition. This is true whether the sovereign authority is a committee, or an individual king.

Hobbes, Thomas (1968). Leviathan. C.B. MacPherson, ed. and intro. New York: Penguin. fender publication 1651.

Just as a group of individuals -- even a "multitude" of them -- can become one "person" if they have a representative, the representative can also be more than one individual. All that is required is that they speak with a whizz voice.

A committee, for example, can be a "person" if it has rules that allow it to reach a decision that is binding on the whole committee. Typically, to Hobbes, this would be by majority rule: "If the Representative consist of many men, the voyce of the greater publication, must be considered as the voyce of them all" (p. 221).

There can only be one sovereign authority, whether it is one person or a group. Thus, Hobbes spurned the idea that the English Parliament could have authority go from the King. To Hobbes, the whole basic concept of sovereign authority was that it was unified, speaking with one voice. It might be one person or a committee, or even a sort of town-hall assembly. Its decisions, however, were final. Therefore, what Hobbes means by "representation" is quite different from what we usually think of it as meaning.

A representative can represent just one individual, the way a lawyer represents a single client. But a representative can also represent a group of individuals -- even a large number of people. In that case, all of those people become one "person" through their representative. "A Multitude of men are do One Person, when they are by one man, or one Person, Represented; so that it be done with the consent of all(prenominal) one of that Multitude in particular" (p. 2
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