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He then proceeds to eliminate the body and the senses from being without doubt, until he comes up with the one verifiable truth: Sensing? There can be no sensing in the absence of body; and besides I have seemed during sleep to apprehend things which does belong to me: it alone cannot be separated from me. I am, I exist. This is certain. How often? As often as I think. For it might indeed be that if I entirely ceased to think, I should thereupon altogether cease to exist. I am not at present admitting anything, that is to say, a mind an understanding or reason--terms the significance of which has hitherto been unknown to me. I am, then, a real thing, and really existent. What thing? I have said it a thinking thing. (Descartes, Rene, "Meditations," Struhl, Paula Rothenberg, and Struhl Karsten J., editors, Philosophy Now. Random House: 1980)
The sovereign (government) according to Hobbes is the glue that holds society together. The sovereign enacts and enforces laws. The sovereign is the power that all men fear if they break the law. The sovereign has the right to execute its citizens if they are found guilty, but the citizen has no obligation to assist in his own execution or death (Hobbes 199). It is against the Law of Nature not to resist death. Hobbes states: "For though a man may covenant thus, Unlesse I do so, or so, kill me; he cannot covenant thus, Unlesse I do so, or so, I will not resist you, when you come to kill me" (Hobbes 199).
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