Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The nature of sovereignty is the same no matter how it is actually achieved. In particular, a parent does not have sovereignty over her children because she generated them, no more than God has sovereignty over His creatures because He created them. In these cases as in all others, sovereignty requires power over the subject. In the case of divine sovereignty, the power is sufficient because divine power is naturally and permanently overwhelming. In the case of parental sovereignty, power is a necessary but not a sufficient condition. The other condition is the implied consent of the children to obey the parent, in exchange for not being killed (L 20.4; EL 2.4.3). Of course, infants and young children are incapable of giving consent, but at some point before they acquire the strength to challenge the parent they can and do give their consent, if only implicitly, to one or both of their parents to rule them. The authority of parents is absolute: “they may alienate them [the children], that is, assign his or her dominion, by selling or giving them in adoption or servitude to others; or may pawn them for hostages, kill them for rebellion, or sacrifice them for peace, by the law of nature …” (EL 2.4.8). Hobbes is not being heartless. He is describing how things are in the state of nature, and there is no doubt that he thinks that it is good to get out of it.Hobbes does not use the term ... log in or subscribe to read full text