Leviathan · Chapter
Of Counsel explained
Hobbes distinguishes counsel from command, emphasizing that true counsel aims at the benefit of the advised, not the advisor.
What happens
Hobbes distinguishes counsel from command, emphasizing that true counsel aims at the benefit of the advised, not the advisor. He warns against exhortation and dehortation as corrupt forms of counsel, and outlines the qualities of a good counsellor: disinterest, clear reasoning, experience, and confidentiality. He argues that counsel is best given privately rather than in assemblies, where passion and private interest can distort advice.
Themes in this chapter
Sovereignty and Absolute Power
Hobbes distinguishes commands (from a sovereign) from counsel, emphasizing that commands derive their authority from the sovereign's will, while counsel is based on the benefit to the advised.
Human Nature and Passions
Hobbes discusses how passions and private interests corrupt counsel, especially in assemblies, where eloquence and ambition can lead to poor decisions.
Liberty and Obligation
The chapter explores the obligation to follow commands versus the freedom to accept or reject counsel, highlighting the difference between duty and self-interest.
Characters to notice
- Jesus Christ
Cited as an example of counsel: 'Sell all thou hast; give it to the poor; and follow me' is counsel because the reason is drawn from our own benefit.
- Moses
Referenced indirectly through the Ten Commandments, which are given as examples of commands from God.
Key passages
“For experience, being but memory of the consequences of like actions formerly observed, and counsel but the speech whereby that experience is made known to another; the virtues and defects of counsel are the same with the virtues and defects intellectual: and to the person of a commonwealth, his counsellors serve him in the place of memory and mental discourse.”
Counsel is simply the communication of experience, so the quality of counsel reflects the intellectual virtues or flaws of the counselor. In a commonwealth, counselors act as the memory and reasoning of the sovereign.
Hobbes analogizes the commonwealth to a natural man, with counselors serving as its memory and reason.
“And therefore we may set down for the first condition of a good counsellor, 'that his ends and interests be not inconsistent with the ends and interests of him he counselleth.'”
The primary requirement for a good counselor is that their personal goals do not conflict with those of the person they are advising.
Hobbes emphasizes the need for disinterested counsel, free from private motives.
“For the passions of men, which asunder are moderate, as the heat of one brand; in an assembly are like many brands, that inflame one another, especially when they blow one another with orations, to the setting of the commonwealth on fire, under pretence of counselling it.”
Individual passions are mild, but in an assembly they intensify each other like burning brands, leading to destructive decisions under the guise of counsel.
Hobbes warns against the dangers of collective deliberation, where passion and eloquence can override reason.