Absolutism

Age of Absolutism 16th - 19th Century

    The idea of sovereignty has been skewed over the years. How did this happen? Absolutism. Absolutism is an ideology that Jean Bodin participated in in 1572 and Thomas Hobbs participated in in 1651; it’s an old idea. Absolutism is the idea that one ruler (generally a monarch) has sovereignty over everyone; one person has absolute power. Although some like this idea for practicality, absolutism generally goes hand in hand with the idea of the divine right of kings. 

     To believe in the divine right of kings is to believe that rulers were bestowed the right to be a ruler by God himself, that a king’s rule was meant to be and should be respected, which turned into treating kings like God. French political philosopher Jean Bodin developed the modern idea of sovereignty in 1572.

Jean Bodin

     The modern idea of sovereignty is basically re-defining the word to fit the description of the divine right of kings idea. Sovereignty was originally a word used to describe God from the 1st and 2nd testaments. God is the one true ruler over everything, He is one and has no peers, therefore He is sovereign. Jean Bodin’s theory of sovereignty says that a State’s supreme power must reside in one, indivisible authority, namely the king. This means that no church, Bishop, or court could interfere with the king’s right to enforce laws.

Thomas Hobbs

    English philosopher Thomas Hobbs wrote The Leviathan in 1651, backing up absolutism. Thomas Hobbs wrote of a natural law, as did other philosophers. But Hobbs’ natural law is arguably the most cynical take on the concept. According to his writing, the state of nature is not the condition before governments, but a state we can all fall back into without a sovereign.

     Hobbs believed that human beings are all essentially sociopaths. We are all equal, but not in a traditional sense, rather we are all equally the potential murderer of everyone else. Without rules and laws we would act primitive. All people act on hunger, lust, and a hunger for power. Hobbs did believe that everyone wants peace, but that without law we would fight for the most power to achieve that peace and lack of fear from everyone else.

    Hobbs believed that there is no right or wrong in the eyes of the individual, but that those ideas only form and come about with government. Thomas Hobbs preached that government is the only version of morals and a sense of what is good and is bad, that a person cannot separate the concepts on their own. Therefore, Hobbs also felt one absolute ruler to dictate all others is the only way to achieve the peace all people crave, to have one person more powerful than all others could achieve so that one’s reach to increase their own power could only go so far. Is the human condition so primitive and flawed? Is a sovereign ruler truly sovereign? If that is the case, is that even a good thing? Everyone must draw their own lines, but not everyone can enforce their wants, but this ideology did re-define some things for the modern day.