1. Biography
2. Hobbes’ view of Nature and the Nature of
Man
3. The Human Condition
4. The State of Nature (Warre)
5. Covenant
6. Rights of Nature, Laws of nature
7. Civil Society, and the Common-wealth
8. The Sovereign
1. Brief Biography of the Long Life of Thomas
Hobbes
o Born 1588 died 1679, aged 91
o As a young man acted as amanuensis to Francis
Bacon,
o 1628 tr. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian
War
o 1634-7 Hobbes travelled to Italy, met Galileo
o 1640, exile to France
o 1650 met Descartes in Paris
Hobbes considered Aristotle "the worst Teacher that
ever was, the worst Politician and Ethick" (Aubrey
Brief Lives, Penguin, 237).
The Biblical Leviathan "I will not keep silence
concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly
frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can
penetrate his double coat of mail? Who can open the doors
of his face? Round about his teeth is terror. ... Upon earth
there is not his like, a creature without fear. He beholds
everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of
pride." (Book of Job 41:12-34)
2. Hobbes’ mechanistic view of nature and human
nature
i. ‘When a body is once in motion it moveth (unless
something els hinder it) eternally.’ p.88’
ii. Sense: ‘For there is no conception in a man's mind,
which hath not at first ... been begotten upon the
organs of sense" (85).
iii. Reason:When there is a controversy, "the parties must
by their own accord, set up, for right reason, the
reason of some arbitrator, or judge, to whose
sentence they will both stand, or their
controversy must either come to blows, or be
undecided, for want of a right reason constituted
by nature ...".
4. Good and Evil:
‘But whatsoever is the object of any man’s Appetite or
Desire, that is what he for his part calleth Good: and the
object of his Hate and Aversion, Evill …for these words of
Good and Evill, and Contemptible, are ever used with
relation to the person that useth them: There being
nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common Rule of
Good and Evill to be taken from the nature of the objects
themselves: but from the person of the man (where there
is no Common-wealth;) or, (in a Common-wealth) from
the Person that representeth it; of from an Arbitrator or
Judge, whom men disagreeing shall by consent set up and
make his sentence Rule thereof.’ ch 6
3. The Human Condition
Human beings share a common end: the desire to live a
contented life.
Desires can never be satisfied. Hence contentment =
securing means to future satisfactions
“I put for a general tendency of all mankind, a
perpetual and restless desire of power after power,
that ceaseth only in death."
4.
From Human nature to the state of warre
(a) Equality.
(b) Equality implies diffidence.
(c) Diffidence implies war.
(d) The sense of honour.
(e) Conclusion: War of All Against All.
i. Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live
without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are
in that condition which is called Warre; and such a Warre,
as is of every man, against every man. Leviathan, 13, 88
ii. "For WAR, consisteth not in battle only, or the act of
fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend
by battle is sufficiently known". (82) War is any time when
there is no assurance of peace. And (of course!): "All other
time is PEACE."
iii. …And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish,
and short. Leviathan, ch. 13, p. 89
iv. To this warre of every man against every man, this also
is consequent; that nothing can be Unjust. The notions of
Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no
place. Where there is no common Power, there is no Law:
where no Law, no Injustice. Leviathan, ch. 13, p. 90
5.
The Covenant
The solution is to be found in Passions + Reason
"The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death;
desire of such things as are necessary for commodious
living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them. And
reason suggesteth convenient articles of peace, upon
which men may be drawn to agreement."
6.
Rights and Laws,
Hobbes on the right of nature (i.e. basic fact of human
nature). The right of nature “is the liberty each man hath,
to use his own power, as he will himself, for the
preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own
life."
Right = absence of external impediments to action : hence
freedom to do whatever one decides is necessary to
preserve one’s life.
Rights and Laws or “Jus Naturale" and "Lex
Naturalis"
Jus Naturale = latin term for innate knowledge of moral
duties. (But Hobbes denies innate knowledge.)
Hobbes defines a law of nature as "a precept or general
rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to
do that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the
means of preserving the same".
Laws of nature are acquired (by reason). But they are only
theorems of political science concerning what is necessary
for self-preservation. They are not State laws, which
require political authority and the credible threat of force.
Laws of nature Lex naturalis ch.14
1. "every man, ought to endeavour peace, as far
as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot
obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps, and
advantages of war."
2. "a man [must] be willing, when others are so
too, as far-forth, as for peace, and defence of
himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down
this right [of nature] to all things; and be
contented with so much liberty against other men,
as he would allow other men against himself."
2 a “covenants based on fear are valid”
2b “No covenant against oneself” One cannot transfer or
lay down ones right to self defense.
3.
"that men perform their covenants made."
“These dictates of Reason, men use to call by the name of
Lawes, but improperly: for they are but Conclusions, or
Theoremes concerning what conduceth to the
conservation and defence of themselves; wheras Law,
properly is the word of him, that by right hath command
over others. But yet if consider the same Theoremes, as
delivered in the word of God, that by right commandeth all
things; then they are properly called Lawes. Leviathan, ch.
15, p. 111”
These laws are not as it were descriptive – sociological
laws. Hobbes thinks of them as having normative
authority – as prescriptions. In what sense do they oblige?
Generally Hobbes argues that there is no obligation
without the legal mechanism to enforce law. Eg.
"covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no
strength to secure a man at all." (109)
Does not distinguish between legal and a moral obligation,
nor between obligation to human and to divine law.
7.
Civil Society and the Common-wealth
Laws of the State or Civil (positive) Laws
For the laws of nature of themselves and without terrour
of some power, to cause them to be observed, are contrary
to our natural passions, that carry us to Partiality, Pride,
Revenge and the like. Covenants without the sword, are
but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.
Therefore notwithstanding the laws of nature…, if there be
no power erected, or not great enough for our security;
every man will, and may lawfully rely on his own strength
and art, for caution against all other men. (17, 117-118)
The Law of Nature, and the Civill Law, contain each other,
and are of equall extent. For the Lawes of Nature...in the
condition of meer Nature (as I have said before in the end
of the 15th Chapter) are not properly Lawes, but qualities
that dispose men to peace, and to obedience. When a
Common-wealth is once settled, then they are actually
Lawes, and not before; as being then the commands of the
Common-wealth; and therefore also Civill Lawes: For it is
the Sovereign Power that obliges men to obey them.
Leviathan ch. 26, p. 185
8.
The Sovereign
The Sovereign
The only way to erect such a Common Power…is, to
conferre all their power and strength upon one Man, or
upon one Assembly of men, that may reduce all their
Wills, by plurality of voices, unto one Will: which is as
much to say, to appoint one Man, or Assembly of men, to
beare their Person; and everyone to owne, and
acknowledge himselfe to be Author of whatsoever he that
so beareth their Person, shall Act, or cause to be Acted, in
those things which concerne the Common Peace and
Safetie; and therein to submit their Wills, everyone to his
Will, and their Judgement, to his Judgement. This is more
than Consent, or Concord; it is a reall Unitie of them all, in
one and the same Person, made by the Covenant of every
man with every man, in such manner, as if every man
should say to every man, I Authorise and give up my Right
of Governing my selfe, to this Man, or to this Assembly of
men, on this condition, that thou give up thy Right to him,
and Authorise all his Actions in like manner. Leviathan,
ch. 17, p. 120