While John Locke is widely credited with the theory of popular consent, the source answer identifies Thomas Hobbes. This is often debated because Hobbes argued that sovereignty is created by a social contract where individuals transfer their rights to a ruler. While he posits the people as the source of the contract, he uses this to justify absolute monarchy rather than liberal democracy. This answer is historically contested.

Thomas Hobbes rejected the idea that 'might is right' as the basis for political authority. In 'Leviathan', he argues that the state is founded upon a rational social contract where individuals voluntarily surrender their natural rights to a sovereign to ensure security and order. This is a legal and moral arrangement based on consent and authorization, distinct from mere physical domination or brute force.

In Hobbes's Leviathan, the social contract creates an absolute sovereign to whom individuals surrender their rights. Because the sovereign is not a party to the contract but its creation, the subjects cannot claim a breach of contract to justify rebellion. Once the covenant is made, the authority is irrevocable, and the minority must submit to the will of the sovereign to avoid returning to the state of nature.

Hobbes argues that in the state of nature, life is 'nasty, brutish, and short' due to the absence of a common power. For Hobbes, rights are meaningless without the power to enforce them. Therefore, the establishment of an absolute sovereign (the Leviathan) is necessary to create order. In his view, the sovereign's power is the prerequisite for the existence of any stable rights within a civil society.

In his seminal work 'Leviathan', Thomas Hobbes argued that without a common power to keep them in awe, humans exist in a state of nature characterized by constant fear and violent death. He described this life as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, necessitating the creation of a sovereign authority to ensure peace and security.

Hobbes argued that the state of nature was a condition of perpetual war and total anarchy. Because individuals lived in constant fear of violent death, they were driven by self-preservation to surrender their rights to a sovereign power, thereby establishing a social contract to ensure peace, security, and the cessation of chaotic conflict.

Thomas Hobbes provided this definition in his masterpiece, 'Leviathan.' He viewed human life as a restless pursuit of power and satisfaction. For Hobbes, happiness is not a static state of tranquility but a dynamic process of achieving successive desires. This materialistic and psychological view of human nature serves as the foundation for his argument regarding the necessity of a strong sovereign to maintain order.

Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, is a foundational text of political philosophy written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. It explores the necessity of a strong, absolute sovereign to prevent the chaos of the 'state of nature' and ensure social order.

Thomas Hobbes, a seminal figure in political philosophy, died on December 4, 1679. His death marked the end of a long and productive life that spanned nearly the entire 17th century. His work, particularly 'Leviathan', remains a cornerstone of political theory, providing a systematic justification for absolute sovereignty based on the necessity of avoiding the 'state of nature'.

Thomas Hobbes described the state of nature as a pre-social condition characterized by a 'war of all against all.' In this hypothetical state, there is no common power or law, leading to a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Individuals are driven by self-interest and fear, necessitating the creation of a social contract to establish a sovereign authority.