In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, spiky-haired young Calvin creates chaos as he navigates a world transformed by his imagination. Teachers and parents become aliens and dinosaurs. His stuffed tiger Hobbes prowls by his side, commenting skeptically and refusing to eat his bully because “[f]at kids are high in cholesterol.”
Calvin and Hobbes was created by Bill Watterson, who studied political science while considering a career as an editorial cartoonist. The stuffed tiger Hobbes is named after the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who, as Watterson put it, held a “dim view of humanity.” Hobbes is best known for Leviathan, published in 1651, where he argues in favor of absolute monarchy as a response to inherent human aggression.
…in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death…. Competition of riches, honour, command, or other power, inclineth to contention, enmity, and war; because the way of one competitor to the attaining of his desire is to kill, subdue, supplant, or repel the other. 1
Hobbes believes our selfish desires create perpetual conflict. We can escape that conflict by agreeing to grant a monopoly on violence to a sovereign power. The sovereign power then enforces a peace under which we can all flourish.
…during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man…. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently…no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear of danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. 2
For Hobbes, the role of the sovereign is defined by the use of force. We find a very different view of government in the teaching of Confucius. Confucius was a moral and political philosopher in ancient China, and Chinese civil servants were trained in his philosophy for thousands of years. Confucius teaches that the proper focus of rulers is not on controlling the public but on controlling themselves.
Ji Kangzi asked Confucius about governing.
Confucius responded, “To ‘govern’ means to be ‘correct’. If you set an example by being correct yourself, who will dare to be incorrect?” 3
Hobbes and Confucius hold different views of government because they hold different views of desire. Hobbes takes desire as given, so behavior must be changed by changing consequences. Confucius sees desire as malleable, and a powerful tool for shaping desire is moral example. By modelling appropriate desires, the sovereign achieves order through “we-wei,” or effortless action.
The Master said, “Is [the sage emperor] Shun not an example of someone who ruled by means of wu-wei? What did he do? He made himself reverent and took his proper [ritual] position facing south, that is all.” 4
Hobbes presents a model of religion that reflects the same assumptions as his model of government. Because Hobbes views desires as fixed, religion is defined by beliefs about consequences, “invisible” rewards and punishments. In contract, Confucius views rituals like those that are part of religion as powerful tools for shaping desire.
The Master said, “If you try to guide the common people with coercive regulations and keep them in line with punishments, the common people will become evasive and will have no sense of shame. If, however, you guide them with Virtue, and keep them in line by means of ritual, the people will have a sense of shame and will rectify themselves.” 5
Much of Leviathan deals with the relationship between church and state, and Hobbes quotes extensively from the Bible. However, the Christian perspective on desire is more like that of Confucius than that of Hobbes. In the Bible, Jesus emphasizes attitude over behavior, answering a question about the greatest commandment with two commandments about attitude while condemning those with good behavior but bad intentions.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:27 – 28 NIV)
Hobbes describes life without government as “nasty, brutish, and short.” However, the life under government that Hobbes describes remains brutish, with each of us dissuaded from harming our neighbors only to the extent that we fear our government. Confucius does well to look beyond force for means of cultivating a state. Reforming desires is a graceful way of promoting cooperation and prosperity.
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994), 58.
- Hobbes, Leviathan, 76.
- Confucius, Analects, trans. Edward Slingerland (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994), 133.
- Confucius, Analects, 175.
- Confucius, Analects, 8.