2. Hobbes: Equality in the Contract State
Thomas Hobbes posited that in the state of nature, all individuals are equal in their vulnerability and capacity to kill or be killed. This natural equality leads people to enter a social contract to escape the state of war, submitting to an absolute sovereign for protection and order.
Strength: Hobbes’s idea of equality is pragmatic, emphasizing that all people are equally vulnerable and equally rational in their desire for self-preservation. His theory supports a basic form of social equality by justifying the creation of laws that apply equally to everyone under the sovereign.
Limitation: Hobbes’s focus on equality in terms of mutual vulnerability does not extend to economic or social equality. The sovereign’s power can become authoritarian, and his contract theory does little to address inequality once individuals are under the state's control.
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