Day 1) Thomas Hobbes
Questions of the day:
1) How does Hobbes argue for subjectivism?
2) What does Hobbes think is the function of government?
3) What does Hobbes think morality is?
4) How does the Prisoner’s Dilemma illustrate the distinction between
individual and collective rationality?
5) Does Hobbes See the State of Nature as a Prisoners Dilemma?
1) How does Hobbes argue for subjectivism?
Subjectivism is a slippery idea, but we have to start somewhere. Here is a
preliminary answer to the question of what subjectivism is:
Subjectivism about some topic is the view that there is nothing beyond the
individual's own psychological responses against which claims about that topic can
be judged correct or incorrect. Hobbes argues for subjectivism about the topic of
what is good. He holds that there is no standard beyond the individual's own
desires against which claims about what is good can be counted as true or false.
Leviathan Pt. 1, Ch. 6:
We call good the things we want
So, “x is good” means “I want x”
Given this starting point, Hobbes cannot claim that we need government because it
results in things that are objectively good. There are no facts about good and bad
apart from facts about what the individual wants.
Nevertheless Hobbes does think there is such a thing as practical rationality. There
is exactly one principle of practical rationality:
Take the means to your desired ends.
Practical reason does not tell you what ends to desire. It only tells you to take the
means to your desired ends.
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We can call the view that the only principle of practical reason is this means-end
principle Instrumentalism about practical reason.
Hobbes does not think he can show that instrumentally rational individuals will
necessarily act justly, or morally. Rather, he argues that it is the proper function of
government to make it instrumentally rational for individuals to act justly, or
morally. And he argues that government can fulfill this function only if there is an
absolute sovereign.
2) What does Hobbes think is the function of government?
The function of government is to make individual rationality coincide with
collective rationality.
Note: Hobbes does not use the terms individual rationality and collective
rationality. This is a proposal, for you to consider, about what Hobbes might be
trying to say.
Individual rationality is rationality in answering questions of the form. "What am I
going to do?"
Collective rationality is the rationality of a group. It is rationality in answering
questions of the form, "What are we going to do?"
To show that the function of government is to make individual rationality coincide
with collective rationality, Hobbes starts by asking where we would be without
government. He uses the expression State of Nature for the condition of human life
without government (without “common power,” “law”).
(Compare: to figure out the function of an organ, we might ask what would happen
to the organism without it.)
Hobbes argues that in a state of nature individual rationality leads to a "war of all
against all," in which life is "nasty, brutish, and short."
Notice that Hobbes does not think the war of all against all is a result of practical
irrationality. He thinks it results from practical rationality. People are taking the
means to their desired ends.
So in the State of Nature, practical rationality leads to a situation in which people
are less able to achieve their desired ends than they would be if they cooperated.
The problem is that individual rationality conflicts with collective rationality.
3) What does Hobbes think morality is?
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Morality is collective rationality. (Or perhaps better; morality is the coincidence of
collective and individual rationality. Thus there is no morality in the State of
Nature. In the State of Nature, Hobbes holds, everyone has a right to all things,
even the body of another person. But there is morality under a sovereign if the
sovereign enforces peace. Why would the sovereign enforce peace? Perhaps
because otherwise they will be deposed.)
4) How does the Prisoner’s Dilemma illustrate the distinction between
individual and collective rationality?
B
Confesses
Doesn’t confess
Confesses
8, 8
0, 10
Doesn’t confess
10, 0
2, 2
A
Legend: (A’s years in prison, B’s years in prison)
Individual rationality leads to 8, 8
But the collectively rational choice is “Neither of us confesses,” which gives us each 2
years.
Individual practical rationality is the rationality of an answer to the question “What am
I going to do?”
Collective practical rationality is the rationality of an answer to the question “What are
we going to do?” It is the rationality of a group rather than that of an individual.
Now consider how the introduction of a sovereign would alter the payoffs.
What the sovereign does is to make individual rationality line up with collective
rationality. That is the function of government, for Hobbes.
Does Hobbes See the State of Nature as a Prisoners Dilemma?
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One might think Hobbes views the State of Nature as a Prisoner’s Dilemma. But there is at
least some evidence to the contrary.
In Pt. 1, Ch. 14, he says there is a fundamental law of nature, or rule of reason, to the effect
that insofar as human’s are governed by the desire for self-preservation they should seek
peace. And then he says there is a second rule that is derived from this:
That a man be willing, when others are so too … to lay down this right to all
things and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would
allow other men against himself.
This suggests that he thinks it is individually rational to cooperate as long as others are
cooperating. In a Prisoner’s Dilemma, it is not individually rational to cooperate if the
other is cooperating. In a PD it does not matter what the other person will do; the rational
choice is to defect. (There is a dominant strategy.)
It may be that Hobbes is thinking of the State of Nature, not as a Prisoner’s Dilemma but as
what is called an Assurance Game.
In an assurance game, it is individually rational to cooperate as long as others will also
cooperate, but it is individually irrational to cooperate when other will not cooperate.
(There is no dominant strategy.)
For example:
If we don’t cooperate, the best we can get is a hare. If we do cooperate, we can bring down
a stag, which will feed us both for much longer.
B
Goes for a stag
Goes for a hare
Goes for a stag
½ stag, ½ stag
nada, hare
Goes for a hare
hare, nada
hare, hare
A
3) How does Hobbes think humans can emerge from the State of Nature?
By establishing a sovereign.
But the sovereign is established by a contract (a mutual transferring of right)
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We all transfer our right-to-all-things to the sovereign. Then the sovereign can use this
power to make it individually rational for us to cooperate. Insofar as the sovereign does
this, government performs its function, namely, to establish morality (viewed as the
coincidence of individual and collective rationality).
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