# Of Those Things That Weaken, or Tend to the Dissolution of a Commonwealth explained — Leviathan

> Chapter companion for Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

## What happens

Hobbes identifies doctrines and practices that undermine the commonwealth, including private judgment of good and evil, the belief that sovereign power can be divided, the influence of classical republican writings, and the conflict between civil and spiritual authority. He argues these lead to civil war and dissolution.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sovereignty and Absolute Power

Hobbes argues that dividing sovereign power dissolves the commonwealth, and that the sovereign is not subject to civil laws.

### Liberty and Obligation

The chapter discusses how private judgment and conscience undermine civil obligation, and how subjects must obey the sovereign as the public conscience.

### Religion and Civil Authority

Hobbes condemns the claim of spiritual power to declare sin and law, comparing it to a disease that leads to civil war.

## Character check-ins

### Samuel

The people of the Jews called upon Samuel to demand a king, rejecting God's rule.

### Moses

Referenced in the context of the Jewish rejection of God for a king.

## Key lines

> For what is it to divide the power of a commonwealth, but to dissolve it; for powers divided mutually destroy each other.

Dividing sovereign power is equivalent to destroying the commonwealth, because separate powers will inevitably conflict.

_Hobbes's core argument against mixed government._

> For a man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing, and as the judgment, so also the conscience may be erroneous.

Conscience is identical to personal judgment, which can be mistaken; therefore, in a commonwealth, the law must be the public conscience.

_Hobbes rejects private conscience as a basis for disobeying civil law._

> For seeing the 'ghostly' power challengeth the right to declare what is sin, it challengeth by consequence to declare what is law, sin being nothing but the transgression of the law; and again, the civil power challenging to declare what is law, every subject must obey two masters, who both will have their commands be observed as law; which is impossible.

If both spiritual and civil authorities claim the right to define law, subjects cannot obey both, leading to inevitable conflict.

_Hobbes's critique of the dual authority of church and state._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters/xxix-of-those-things-that-weaken-or-tend-to-the-dissolution-of-a-commonwealth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters