Hobbes’ predictions: A strong ruler is needed to steer country out of crisis

Lecture series explores 17th century philosopher’s work.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistani society needs a new social contract to escape the constant state of conflict and fear that it finds itself in, just like the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes had prescribed.

Hobbes, famous for the social contract theory he articulated in his 1651 book Leviathan, and his ideas were the topic of the School of Modern History and Philosophy’s latest lecture on Saturday.

Ashfaq Saleem Mirza, renowned writer and intellectual who delivers the lectures, said Hobbes had supposed that if humans are left ungoverned — the “State of Nature”, a hypothetical situation where there is no government — then their condition would be one of fear and wretchedness and their lives would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

Mirza said the Hobbes’s state of nature — characterised by incessant conflict, chaos and insecurity — seems prescient when it comes to countries suffering from lawlessness including the Pakistan. He said Hobbes, and Machiavelli before him, had explored the real nature of human beings.

Hobbes had said everyone would be at war with everyone else, driven by competition and self-interest, in the absence of sovereign authority.

Mirza gave the example of Karachi and the deliberations over an armed operation to resolve the city’s problem of violence to explain the point Hobbes had made.

Quoting from the Leviathan, the book that is considered to have deeply influenced most of Western political philosophy, Mirza said Hobbes believed it was rationally necessary to seek peace and enter in to an agreement not to harm others: a social contract.

“The social contract in our country has eroded,” he said. “We need to build ourselves a new one.”

So the individuals had to appoint a ruler who could defend them and punish violators.

As the conversation touched upon current affairs — Syria and the proposed US intervention — Mirza said only power prevails and every ideology in history has depended upon force for its survival.

He said protesting against the world superpower’s imminent intervention in Syria would not matter much unless the resistance could be on an equal level of power.

“The weak will have to submit and the powerful will have their say no matter how much we debate about ethics and human rights,” Mirza said.

He said power could be gained through economic means and Pakistan would do well to build its economy and industry to gain prominence in the world.

The lectures are an informal gathering of philosophy enthusiasts from Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2013.