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Chapter 23
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
The nutrition of a common-wealth consists of the distribution of materials necessary for life coming from both land and sea, and such materials must be distributed in accordance with “propriety.” The first law of distribution is the division of land, and the sovereign power is to assign each subject a portion of land that is “agreeable to Equity, and the Common Good.” A subject may exclude any other subject from the rights of their personal land, but they cannot exclude the sovereign power.
As nature is a state of equity, the common-wealth must also be state of equity—with the exception of the sovereign power, of course. The distribution of land in accordance with “propriety” ensures that no one person is given more land than the next, as this would give the larger landowner more power than smaller landowners.
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Hobbes admits that a sovereign power may distribute materials in pursuit of private passions and rather than in the best interest of the common-wealth, which is technically a breach of the Law of Nature; however, this breech does not authorize a subject to make war on the sovereign power, accuse the sovereign of injustice, or insult the sovereign in any way, as every action of the sovereign is but the action of the subjects
Again, since the sovereign is imbued with the power of the subjects it represents, anything the sovereign does is technically the actions of its subjects. Thus, it is against the Law of Nature for the sovereign to act in any way that is not in the best interest of the common-wealth.
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In the distribution of materials, the common-wealth may retain a portion of land for the public use of the common-wealth. But to do so, Hobbes says, is in “vaine,” as “the nature of men being as it is” often leads to the destruction of the common-wealth. All distribution of land inside the common-wealth belongs to the sovereign, but giving each subject a portion of land is not enough to sustain the common-wealth. Thus, subjects may redistribute whatever they can spare through exchange or mutual covenant.
Money is the blood of the common-wealth, and the public can use money in two ways. First, the common-wealth can use money by placing it into public coffers. Secondly, the common-wealth can use money by removing it from the public coffers and applying it as public payment.
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The “children” or “procreation” of a common-wealth are known as colonies, in which any number of subjects are sent by the sovereign under the authority of a governor to a foreign country. Said country may be void of people, or it can be populated by inhabitants that are then subdued by war. A colony’s rights after it is established are authorized exclusively by the sovereign power.
