Week 2 - Hobbes on Education

While reading Leviathan I find myself constantly comparing Hobbes’ ideas and theories to today’s world. One of his more interesting points for me was his view on education, so I’d like to take a few paragraphs to compare and contrast his views with today’s educational systems.

 

Hobbes believes that it is the sovereign’s responsibility “to be judge of what opinions and doctrines are averse” (p99). He goes on to state that the sovereign also needs to regulate who is able to speak to large audiences and who is in charge of determining what books are able to be published. Obviously, Hobbes’ believes the sovereign should hold a tight grip on how his people are educated. His belief is predicated on the fact that if people are taught things outside of the “approved government curriculum” a civil war could result.

The education system today (in regards to the US) probably isn’t what Hobbes’ would have envisioned. However, some of his ideas can still be seen. For instance, the government does dictate certain types of knowledge students are required to learn. Teachers are required to cover specific topics in US history, English, and math. Additionally, most students take standardized tests which are designed to measure how much of the “standardized” knowledge required to be taught was retained by the student. But thankfully, the educational systems in the US function under much more autonomy than what would have been preferred by Hobbes. Especially at the university level, students have a choice of attending institutions that specialize in different fields or hold different core beliefs.

When looking outside of the US, there are many countries that still hold a tight grip on what their people are able to read and learn (China is the first to come to mind). Personally, I don’t believe a Hobbes’ system of education is beneficial in modern times. The quality of a country’s workforce is directly tied to the strength of its economy which can then be directly tied to its military might. In Hobbes’ day it may have seemed logical to keep a better grasp on the information going into the heads of the masses, but today it doesn’t make sense. Introducing new ideas and ways of thinking to students is critical to keeping a country’s businesses innovative and its economy thriving. Hobbes’ aversion to unregulated education was based on the fear of civil war, but I wonder if he ever pondered the benefits of having a more intellectual population which had open access to any type of information they desired.