Thomas Hobbes is known for his writings on notable ideas such as the social contract theory of government and his views on absolute sovereignty. Hobbes unfortunatly grew up in a time of political turmoil that in turn influenced his view on man and philosophy. On mankind Hobbes famously wrote:
In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.as we can see Hobbes did not see mankind in the most positive light and came to the conclusion that "the object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and for one instant of time, but to assure forever the way of his future desire". Thomas Hobbes saw man in his natural as only working to secure his/her own safety at the expense of future gains, to counter this problem he proposed that mankind unite to avoid the ugly fate of the natural man and:
"confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will: ... This is more than consent, or concord; it is a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in such manner as if every man should say to every man: I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou give up, thy right to him, and authorise all his actions in like manner."Thomas Hobbes had extreme views and I while I can see the benefit of having every individual submit their individual will to one person so as to avoid the discontent and quarrels of competing views, and while I may have misunderstood Thomas Hobbes I still think that there is a unique feature of the individual that needs to be preserved and protected. Call me crazy but I think that there still is a way to protect the individual and ones right to conflicting viewpoints while still preserving unity.
