Jendrysik, “Land or Sea Beast”
MPSA 2004
6
But, we may ask, where do these erroneous ideas come from? Hobbes points to the
universities and the Church. The teaching of incorrect and dangerous theories of politics and
political organization produces dissatisfaction with government. Hobbes declares that the people
of England had been taught the incorrect belief that a mixed government of King, Lords and
Commons represented the best form of government. The foolish desire to imitate the example of
“neighbor nations” or the political forms of the Greeks and the Romans causes sedition and
discontent.
33
Knowledge of the Greek and Roman political theorists leads men to reject the
necessities of sovereign power and to favor experiments that lead to civil strife.
And by reading these Greek and Latine Authors, men from their childhood have
gotten a habit (under a falseshew of Liberty), of favoring tumults, and of
licentious controlling the actions of their Sovereigns; and again of controlling
those controllers, with the effusion of so much blood; as I think I may truly say,
there was never any thing so deerly bought, as these Western parts have bought
the learning of the Greek and Latine tongues.
34
The reading of these authors, usually as part of the classical curriculum of Oxford and
Cambridge, results in an unjustified hatred of monarchy. The universities teach that liberty exists
only under democracy. Hobbes states, “From Aristotles Civill Philosophy, they have learned to
call all manner of Common-wealths but the popular, (such as was at that time the state of
Athens), Tyranny.”
35
Because they had been educated to believe that monarchy equaled tyranny,
men believe that killing a king was a lawful and praiseworthy act.
36
Those who read classical
authors “conceive an opinion, that the subjects in a popular Common-wealth enjoy Liberty; but
that in a Monarchy they are all Slaves.”
37
The “darknesse of vain philosophy” blinds men to the
truth about the ancient republics and their modern counterparts. They fail to understand that
republics tend toward anarchy.
38
They refuse to recognize that democracies are no freer than
monarchies, and indeed, that a popular state’s disorderly nature renders its citizens less free than
the subjects of a strong king. Finally, incorrect interpretations of the Bible, especially I Samuel,
create the impression that God disapproves of monarchy.
39
As I will demonstrate below, all of the above is discussed in Behemoth, especially
Hobbes’s favorite whipping boys “the schoolmen.” As Kraynak notes “In Behemoth it is quite
evident that Hobbes’s primary concern is the use of classical philosophers as authorities for
liberty and democracy, rather than their actual beliefs.”
40
The English have been taught be believe that their government is a “mixed monarchy.”
For Hobbes this is an invitation to civil war. Mixed government in human affairs produces
struggles between its parts. In this struggle for supremacy each part destroys the authority of the
other. A divided government is some strange mutated creature, divided into factions and at war
with itself. A mixed commonwealth falls prey to mobs whipped up by orators who inflame the
33
Leviathan, XXIX, 225. By “neighbor nations” Hobbes is probably referring to the Dutch Republic.
34
Leviathan, XXI, 150.
35
Leviathan, XLVI, 470. For a discussion of the seditious effects of universities see Leviathan, XLVI, 470-474.
36
This explains why Hobbes tries to disconnect resistance to government from any political or social definition.
See Burgess, “Contexts” 691.
37
Leviathan, XXIX, 226.
38
Ashcraft, “Ideology and Class in Hobbes’ Political Theory,” 251.
39
Leviathan, XXI, 149, XX, 143-5, and XL 328-ff.
40
Kraynak, History and Modernity, 52.
Convention