Fear Theme Analysis

Fear is present throughout most of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan. In 1651, when Leviathan was first published, England was nearing the end of the English Civil War, a 10-year conflict that pitted the “Cavaliers” (those who supported the monarchy) against the “Roundheads” (those who supported Parliament). The English Civil War saw the abolition of the monarchy, the execution of King Charles I, and the near destruction of English society. Fear and uncertainty were a daily part of life during Hobbes’s time, and that fear is reflected in the references to civil war and regicide in Leviathan. Fear is also reflected in many of Hobbes’s arguments. Fear is present in Hobbes’s examination of religion, and it is paramount in his argument concerning human beings, the state of nature, and the creation of civil societies and common-wealths. Hobbes maintains that humans in a state of nature live in constant fear, and it is fear that drives people to society. Likewise, it is fear that preserves a common-wealth once it is created. In Leviathan, Hobbes underscores the ubiquity of fear, and he effectively argues that fear is a powerful and motivating force that binds people together as a community.

Fear is at the foundation of Hobbes’s examination of God and religion, and, Hobbes contends, it was fear that brought human beings to religion in the first place. According to Hobbes, there exists within humankind a constant fear created by an “ignorance of causes.” When nothing can be seen, and “there is nothing to accuse, either of their good, or evill fortune, but some Power, or Agent Invisible: In which sense perhaps it was, that some of the old Poets said, that the Gods were at first created by humane Feare.” Not only is fear central to Hobbes’s argument concerning religion, but he suggests that fear is likely the motivating force that brought humans to manufacture God, faith, and religion. (Hobbes’s implication that humans created God and religion in response to fear contradicts his general argument regarding religion. Hobbes argues that religion is nonsense, but he nevertheless maintains God’s existence and power. This contradiction is something Hobbes leaves unresolved.) Hobbes argues that it is natural for human beings to wonder about the causes of events and about the causes of one’s own fortune. Of course, these things aren’t always clear, and this causes “anxiety,” so “he supposes causes of them, either such as his own fancy suggesteth; or trusteth to the Authority of other men.” When no reasonable cause for events can be found, humankind creates a cause to dampen their anxiety. Ultimately, Hobbes argues that human beings turned to religion, and perhaps even created it, to answer questions and explain events and causes, thereby alleviating the anxiety and fear that comes from living in ignorance.

Just as fear is central in Hobbes’s argument regarding religion, it is also vital in his examination of human beings, nature, and civil society, which further highlights the pervasiveness of fear. In a state of nature, where everyone has an equal right to self-preservation through violence, Hobbes argues that there is “continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” The constant fear present in nature compounds one’s misery, making nature an unbearable place to live and prompting humankind’s transition to civil society. Hobbes maintains that human beings moved out of nature and created civil societies and common-wealths to get “themselves out from the miserable condition of Warre.” In a civil society, a common power is established via a contract, or covenant, that protects people and frees them of the constant fear of violent death that accompanies nature and war. The contract that establishes the common-wealth cannot be sustained, Hobbes contends, “without the feare of some coerceive Power; which in the condition of meer Nature, where all men are equall, and judges of the justnesse of their own fears cannot possibly be supposed.” In short, for a contract to be maintained—especially the contract that establishes a common-wealth—those involved in the contract must fear the consequences of breaking said contract.

When a common-wealth is created by acquisition, meaning it is created willingly by a group of people who otherwise fear death in nature, those people “who choose their Soveraign, do it for fear of one another, and not of him whom they Institute.” Again, people choose society and a common sovereign power because they fear nature and the state of war that is implicit in it; however, it also is fear—fear of the sovereign power, fear of God, and fear of returning to a state of nature and war—that keeps people loyal and obedient to a common-wealth. Fear was a useful argument during Hobbes’s day, in which fear of war and death was prominent, and he uses that fear to promote his theories and philosophies. Hobbes argues that “life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, or fear,” and his assessment of human beings in Leviathan reflects this assertion.