Thomas Hobbes argued famously that, if a group of human individuals were ever to find themselves in the conflict-ridden "state of nature" that he envisioned -- an unenviable situation in which every individual faces the rather grim prospects of a "nasty, brutish, and short" life fighting for his or her own survival -- then their only means of escape would be to collectively enter into a social contract, thereby empowering one of their number as an absolute sovereign to rule over them all. It is, of course, a matter of some controversy whether this Hobbesian strategy (or something closely resembling it) could ever be successful in effecting an exit from the state of nature. But let us set such controversies aside and suppose that some group of human individuals do, in fact, manage to institute, in Hobbesian fashion, an absolute sovereign, whom we shall dub unimaginatively "Rex I".
It seems clear that, insofar as this provides a remedy to the perils of the state of nature, it does so only temporarily. For the time will surely come when Rex I, being a mere mortal, is no longer capable of ruling. At such a time, unless there is a successor capable of taking over the reigns, everyone will once again be plunged into turmoil. In order to effect a permanent remedy, then, our group of individuals needs, not only a method by which an absolute sovereign might be appointed in the first place, but also a method by which the first absolute sovereign so appointed might then be succeeded by second, then the second by a third, and so on. Call this the problem of succession.
Below I shall (1) suggest one obvious solution to the problem; (2) show how the suggested solution might be thought to give rise to a dilemma; and (3) argue that the dilemma can be resolved through careful analysis of the notion of absolute sovereignty.
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