SOC 2112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Liberal Democracy, Leviathan

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2112
• Professor: Joseph Sawan

Document Summary

Philosopher and scientist, founder of modern social thought. His contact with renaissance thinkers influenced his thoughts. He viewed self preservation as the only certainty among humanity (the only thing we act upon for sure), everyone has it and acts upon it. Everything is matter in motion, all human desires are about keeping the body moving and avoiding death (self preservation) All forms of human motivation are based on a struggle to satisfy desire and avoid death. Similar to durkheim"s view of human nature (he said humans were always looking for more and could never satisfy their desire and they were driven by this) Social relations are artificial (people are in relationships through cost/benefit, not because of impulse or affection- similar to rational theory) He calls for absolute government (monarch/sovereign), this is in the interest of self preservation as people would destroy themselves (through violence and war) without government bringing order.