#Thomas Hobbes [ 1588 - 1679 ] was an English philosopher, most famous for his book Leviathan. He is often quoted for his remarks on the need for government. It is an evil needed to limit men's greed & hate. Did he write about Limited Government, the sort that lets us get on with our own lives & prosper? Pass.
Perhaps it was the next stage on. Limiting government power matters. Too many people seek power as a route to abusing it. There are always those who want to restrict other people's behaviour. It was something like this that the American Constitution was aimed at.
Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes ex Project Gutenberg
QUOTE
Out Of Civil States, There Is Alwayes Warre Of Every One Against Every One
Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man..............The Incommodites Of Such A War
Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.
UNQUOTE
Rivalries need limiting. We need protection against the powerful, the greedy, the unscrupulous. The Wiki quotes his reference to Bellum omnium contra omnes - the war of all against all.
Thomas Hobbes ex Wiki
Thomas Hobbes (/hɒbz/ HOBZ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.[5][6] Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.[7] In addition to political philosophy, Hobbes contributed to a diverse array of other fields, including history, jurisprudence, geometry, theology, and ethics, as well as philosophy in general.
Limited Government ex Wiki
In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.[1]Relationship to Constitutions
Limited government is closely associated with constitutions; the United States Constitution of 1789 and the French Constitution of 1793 were both enacted in an effort to reaffirm limited government, although in different ways.[2] The U.S. Constitution achieved limited government through a separation of powers: "horizontal" separation of powers distributed power among branches of government (the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, each of which provide a check on the powers of the other); "vertical" separation of powers (federalism) divided power between the federal government and the state government.[2] James Madison, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, noted that the Framers of the American Constitution sought to create a government that was capable of both being controlled and of exercising control.[3] Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51 that "the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others."[4]The 1793 French Constitution, on the other hand, enshrined legislative supremacy and was based on the idea (influenced by Rousseau), that limited government was best reached through a "rational democratic self-government seeking to give expression to the general will ... as the optimal antidote to the arbitrary rule of absolute monarchy."[2]
History
Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution also represent important milestones in the limiting of governmental power. The earliest use of the term limited government dates back to King James VI and I in the late 16th century.[5] Scholar Steven Skultety argues that although Aristotle never developed principles and tactics of constitutionalism, Aristotle's political philosophy in some ways anticipated the idea of limited government, primarily as a tool for limiting civic distrust and enhancing stability.[6]