The Divided Throne

Philosopheasy Podcast · Dec 30, 2025 · 31m

Thomas Hobbes proposed a stark bargain at the dawn of the modern state: surrender a measure of individual freedom to an absolute sovereign, the Leviathan, and in return, receive security from a life that was “solitary, poor,nasty, brutish, and short.” For centuries, this social contract, however imperfect, held the state as its central authority. But what happens when the Leviathan is no longer a single entity? What becomes of the contract when sovereignty is fractured, sold, and outsourced to a new breed of titan—the modern corporation—an entity whose primary allegiance is not to the public…