Something that has been weighing heavily on my mind lately is the fact that in Chapter 19 of the Leviathan, Hobbes discusses the fact that the line of succession in his ideal monarchy is not what modern life (or even historically) defines it as. He states that “the word heir does not of itself imply the children, or nearest kindred of a man, but whomsoever a man shall any way declare he would have to succeed him in his estate.”
It is from this that I begin to question the way that things have worked historically, and perhaps why so often there are issues within societies that work differently than this is because incompetent rulers are being put into power purely due to biological heredity or the flaws within democracy.
If we look at things retrospectively, does Hobbes have a legitimate point?
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