Thomas Hobbes is an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about the importance of personal freedoms. He is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, which argues that a strong central government is necessary to ensure social order.
Hobbes believed that without a central government, humans would be in a state of nature where they could not live peacefully because they would constantly be fighting with each other over scarce resources.
He said that this was because people are naturally selfish and competitive, so if there was no power to stop them from doing whatever they wanted, they would do whatever was in their own self-interest, even if it meant harming others. He also believed that this selfishness could be controlled by giving power to the state, which would then have total control over its citizens’ lives.
According to Hobbes, the only way to prevent this scenario from happening was by creating a strong central government that had absolute control over everyone in its territory. He believed that the only way people could live together peacefully was if everyone agreed to obey the rules set by this government and gave up their individual freedoms in return for protection against harm from others.
