Leviathan’s Heirs: sovereignty, intelligence, and the modern state

ABSTRACT

Thomas Hobbes started an enduring debate over sovereignty’s right to shape citizens’ minds between his principal heirs, Locke and Rousseau. Locke insisted that sovereigns can grant liberty of conscience yet still enjoy internal and external peace through wisely drawn laws. Rousseau endorsed such toleration in theory but insisted on shaping virtuous citizens who love republican forms and duties. Rousseau’s teaching on the need for “guides’ to recognize and impose the general will inspired ideological regimes ruled by parties claiming republican legitimacy. For the last century, that metaphorical debate between followers of Locke and Rousseau has helped shape intelligence.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank John Childress, Sarah-Jane Corke, Philip Costopoulos, Emily Goldman, Joseph Hatfield, and other readers for their comments on drafts of this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The opinions expressed herein are his own and do not represent official positions of the Department or any US Government entity.

Notes

1. Strauss, Natural Right and History, 161.

2. See Warner, “Building a Theory of Intelligence Systems,” 29-31.

3. Gill and Phythian, Intelligence in an Insecure World; and Sims, “A Theory of Intelligence and International Politics.”

4. See, for instance, Davies, “The Original Surveillance State: Kautilya’s Arthasastra and Government by Espionage in Classical India’”; Bozeman, “Political Intelligence in Non-Western Societies,”; and Warner, “The Divine Skein: Sun Tzu on Intelligence.”

5. Fox, “Intelligence in the Socratic Philosophers.”

6. Warner, “Building a Theory of Intelligence Systems,” 29-31.

7. Hobbes, ‘The life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury written by himself in a Latine poem, and now translated into English,” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44004.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

8. Hobbes, Leviathan, chapter 13, sections 8-9.

9. Strauss, Natural Right and History, 190.

10. Ibid., Part I, chapter 13, 1.

11. Ibid., Part I, chapter 13, 11-12.

12. Ibid., Part II, “Of Commonwealth,” chapter 17, 2.

13. Ibid., Part II, chapter 24, 12. Remember also that for Hobbes a man’s senses are but spies for his passions, for ‘the thoughts, are to the desires, as scouts, and spies, to range abroad, and find the way of the things desired’; Ibid., Part I, chapter 8, 16.

14. Ibid., “Review and Conclusion,” section 7.

15. Ibid., Part II, “On Commonwealth,” chapter 22, 29.

16. Ibid., Part I, “On Man,” chapter 14, 21.

17. Ibid., Part II, “On Commonwealth,” chapter 24, 6. See also Part III, “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” chap 42, sec 80

18. “…an oath taken according to any other form, or rite, then his, that sweareth, is in vain; and no oath: and that there is no swearing by anything which the swearer thinks not God.’ Ibid., Part I, “On Man,” chap. 14, secs. 31 and 32.

^19. Ibid., Part II, “On Commonwealth,” chapter 17, 1.

20. Ibid., chap 29, sec 6.

21. Ibid., Part III, “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” chap 42, sec 67.

22. Ibid., sec. 125.

23. Ibid., secs. 80, 130.

24. Ibid., Part II, “Of Commonwealth,” chap 29, sec 14.

25. Ibid., sec 7.

26. Ibid., Part III, “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” chap 42, sec 70.

27. Ibid., Part II, “Of Commonwealth,” chap 18, sec 8.

28. With a liberal state here defined as a constitutional order with regular leadership succession, a representative legislature, an independent judiciary, property and contract rights, and set guarantees of civil liberties. ‘Liberal’ is used more or less synonymously with North, Wallis, and Weingast’s term ‘open access orders,’ where ‘entry into economic and political organizations is open to all citizens, fostering competition in both the economy and the polity.’ See North, Wallis, Weingast, Violence and Social Orders, xv. See also Strauss, Natural Right and History, 181-182.

^29. Hobbes observes that every polity requires ‘some man or council” to wield both the ‘sword of justice’ and the ‘sword of war’ on behalf of the community. Hobbes, “The Citizen,” VI:1-8, 174-178.

30. Berns, “Thomas Hobbes,” 366. See also Bronner, The Sovereign, 15.

31. Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, Chapter 5, paragraph 49.

32. Gilson, The Unity of Philosophical Experience, 164-167.

33. ‘Find out something that has the use and value of money amongst his neighbors, you shall see the same man will begin presently to enlarge his possessions.’ See Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, paragraphs 48–50.

34. Ibid., Chap. 7, paragraphs 87–88, 91; and also Chap. 9, paragraphs 123–31.

35. Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689); page numbers refer to the edition reprinted in the Great Books series (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1952)

36. Ibid., 3.

37. Ibid., 15.

38. Ibid., 9.

39. Ibid., 13.

40. Ibid., 8.

41. Ibid., 13.

42. Ibid., 7.

43. Ibid., 20.

44. Ibid., 17.

45. Ibid., 18.

46. Ibid., 15.

47. The passage appears in Rousseau’s Confessions (written in 1770 but not published until 1782). It is quoted and explained in the endnotes by Masters, ed., in Rousseau’s On the Social Contract, with Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy, trans. Judith R. Masters (New York: St. Martins Press, 1978), 133, fn. 4.

48. See Rousseau, “Discourse on Political Economy,” 212; and also On the Social Contract, Book IV, ch. 9, 132. Also Masters’ footnotes 4 and 144 in ibid. as cited above.

49. Rousseau, “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” Part I, 97-99, and Part II, 105, 109, 136. ‘Men are wicked; melancholy and constant experience removes any need for proof. Yet man is naturally good.’ see Ibid., 147, footnote I.

50. Ibid., 104.

51. Ibid., Part II, 105, 109.

52. Rousseau, “Discourse on Political Economy,” 214.

53. Rousseau, “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” 121-122.

54. Ibid., 109.

55. Ibid., 147, fn. I.

56. “Discourse on Political Economy,” 214; and see also “On the Social Contract,” Book II, ch. 4, 63.

57. “On the Social Contract,” Bk III, ch. 15, 102.

58. “Discourse on Political Economy,” 212-213; and also “On the Social Contract,” Book I, chs. 6-7, 53-55. See also the “Geneva Manuscript,” 164-165; this unpublished work was the first draft of “On the Social Contract.” Rousseau wrote it circa 1754-55, and also excerpted it for his “Discourse on Political Economy”; and see Masters, The Political Thought of Rousseau, 258-260.

59. “On the Social Contract,” Book I, chapter 6, 53.

60. “Discourse on Political Economy,” 213; and “On the Social Contract,” Book II, ch. 6, 66.

61. “Discourse on Political Economy,” 221, 224.

62. Ibid., 217-218, 221.

63. Rousseau, “To the Republic of Geneva,” dedicatory letter for his “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” 12 June 1754, in Cranston, ed., A Discourse on Inequality, 58; and see also “On the Social Contract,” Book III, ch. 15, 102.

64. “On the Social Contract,” Book III, ch. 18, 106. See also “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” 131-134.

65. “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” Part II, 134. See also “Discourse on Political Economy,” 215-218.

66. “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” Part II, 128, 134.

67. Ibid., 135.

68. “On the Social Contract,” Book III, ch. 18, 106.

69. “To the Republic of Geneva,” 58-59.

70. “On the Social Contract,” Book III, ch. 12, 99.

71. Ibid., Bk IV, ch. 8, 127-130.

72. Ibid., 127-128.

73. Ibid., 130-131.

74. Ibid., Bk II, ch. 3, 67. See also “Geneva Manuscript,” Book I, ch. 3, 165. See also Strauss, Natural Right and History, 263, 287-288.

75. “On the Social Contract,” Bk I, ch 7, 55.

76. “Geneva Manuscript,” Book I, ch. 3, 165.

77. “On the Social Contract,” Book III, ch. 13, 100.

78. “Geneva Manuscript,” Book I, ch. 3, 165.

79. “On the Social Contract,” Book I, ch 7, 55.

80. “On the Social Contract,” Book II, ch. 5, 64.

81. “Geneva Manuscript,” Book I, ch. 3, 165.

82. “On the Social Contract,” Book I, ch. 7, 55.

83. “On the Social Contract,” Book III, chapters 11-13, 99–107.

84. “Discourse on Political Economy,” 213-214.

85. “Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” Part II, 135.

86. Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, 155-161.

87. The phrase is from a poem of William Blake’s in his Milton: A Poem in Two Books (1808).

88. Strauss, Natural Right and History, 242

89. ‘In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.’ France, Le Lys Rouge, chapter 7.

90. The quoted phrase comes from Bronner, The Sovereign, 15.

91. Warner, The Rise and Fall of Intelligence, 17-19, 334.

92. See note 1 above.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Warner

Michael Warner serves as an historian at the US Department of Defense.