Machiavelli, Bodin, and Hobbes 37 



inalienable, it cannot be lost or taken away. This 

 conception of sovereignty, which has proved to 

 be the most serious theoretical obstacle to the 

 organization of the world under a system of justice, 

 lent itself directly to the distortion of the philo- 

 sophy of force. Bodin's conception of the State 

 places it in the category of Might, and not in the 

 category of Right. If the State is absolute, has 

 no superior, and is subject to no law, there must 

 remain forever as many ungovemed, ungovern- 

 able, and purely arbitrary entities as there are 

 sovereign States, thus ensuring perpetual anarchy 

 in the realm of international relations. 



This idea of the State was developed further 

 by Thomas Hobbes (i 588-1679). His contribu- 

 tions form so important a part of the modem 

 philosophy of force that it is worth while to ex- 

 amine them in some detail. Hobbes, like Machia- 

 velli and Bodin, was greatly influenced by the 

 conditions of the time in which he wrote and drew 

 from the Thirty Years' War the picture of nations 

 living "in a condition of perpetual war and upon 

 the confines of battle," as representing the per- 

 manent reality with which the statesman and the 

 political philosopher have to deal. 



Hobbes, who was strongly in sympathy with 

 the aristocratic ruling class of the Royalists, 

 deduced his social philosophy from an imaginary 

 man, whom he assumes to be naturally self-seeking, 

 egotistic, and nothing more. In a state of nature, 

 where selfish characteristics rule unrestrained, 



