Individualism is inherent in Hobbes’ absolutist ideology. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 claim sound → individual is the root of absolutism, not its casualty
Route 2 absolute state built on individualist ground → individualism precedes and explains the absolutism
starts with the separate individual (not community / virtue / common good) → ontological primacy + self-interested, possessive, self-preserving → Sabine “greatest individualist” / Oakeshott “morality of individuality” / Macpherson “possessive individualism” → natural liberty + equality belong to individuals before the state → unregulated liberty → war of all against all → individuals create all-powerful sovereign for life + possessions → state exists for the person → absolutism derivative of individualism
Macpherson’s tension: “starts as individualist, ends as absolutist” → but tension internal to one system → retained right of self-preservation → individual never disappears under Leviathan
Route 1 individualism not opposed to absolutism but built into it → absolute state = means, individual = end
Route 2 absolutism the form, individualism the inner logic → inherence upheld
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Western Political Thought — 29 questions in the Vault.
- Mill’s work was crucial to the development of liberalism, because it straddled the divide between classical and modern theories. Analyze.
- “Fortune favours the brave.” In the light of this statement, discuss Machiavelli’s concepts of ‘virtue’ and ‘fortune’.
- Hannah Arendt analysed a few categories of vita activa. Explain.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.