PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Western Political Thought
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.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
|) claim sound → individual is the root of absolutism, not its casualty absolute state built on individualist ground → individualism precedes and explains the absolutism
Body flow
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 ofall against all → individuals create all- powerful sovereign for life + possessions → state exists for the person → absolutism derivative of individualism
Counter-view
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
Conclusion routes
F Conclusion routes |] individualism not opposed to absolutism but built into it — absolute state = means, individual = end absolutism the form, individualism the inner logic → inherence upheld
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
