Length: 1000 words minimum (~4 pages double spaced, but please pay attention to the word count rather than the page count).
Prompt:
Thomas Hobbes argues in Leviathan that humans possess “a general inclination… to a perpetual and restless desire for power after power, a desire that ceases only in death.” In his view, this desire drives much of human behavior and shapes the need for a strong governing authority to prevent chaos.
Do you agree with Hobbes’ assertion that the pursuit of power is an inherent, unending trait of human nature? Why or why not? In your essay, refer to at least one other philosopher or theory covered in the course to support or challenge Hobbes’ perspective.
Instructions:
It is not necessary to read or refer to texts or sources besides the ones assigned in the course. But if you do, you must cite your sources (see previous point for details). Failure to do this may constitute plagiarism.
You can use any one of the major citation styles (Chicago, APA, MLA), but the simplest thing to do is just to include the author, title, and page number in parentheses after a quotation, similar to what I have in the slides (which is the Chicago Author-Date style).
Quotations should be kept to a reasonable length. Don’t include unnecessarily long quotations to pad your essay, but make sure that they are long enough that they make sense (both grammatically and logically) when they are removed from the context of the original source.