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Hobbes and the Leviathan

Hobbes and the Leviathan. 1651. Hobbes’ question. How is social order possible? Foundation of Western political philosophy, social contract theory, right of the individual. Materialism: human beings composed of matter and motion, obeying physical law. Hobbes’ assumptions.

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Hobbes and the Leviathan

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  1. Hobbes and the Leviathan 1651

  2. Hobbes’ question • How is social order possible? • Foundation of Western political philosophy, social contract theory, right of the individual. • Materialism: human beings composed of matter and motion, obeying physical law.

  3. Hobbes’ assumptions • People have the capacity to reason • They weigh the costs and benefits • They consider the consequences of their actions

  4. Hobbes’ assumptions, cont’d • People are self-interested • They seek to attain what they desire • Security (avoid death and injury) • Reputation (status) • Gain (possessions)

  5. Assumptions, cont’d • Their ability to attain what they desire depends on their power • Because men want a happy life, they seek sufficient power to ensure that life • All men have a “restless desire for power”

  6. Hobbes: New Approaches to an Old Problem • Hobbes’ approach: a theory of political obligation grounded in human rationality • When is it rational for us as self-interested individuals to obey a ruler? • When are we obliged to do so?

  7. Hobbes: New Approaches to an Old Problem • Hobbes’ solution: we must learn to recognize that our obligations to obey the sovereign are rationally justified, and hence to respect the sovereign power • “Internal” focus • Assumes people are not educable • Assumes a certain amount of rationality and self-interest

  8. The State of Nature • What is our natural condition? Are people naturally equal? • Aristotle: No, some are masters and some are slaves according to the degree of rationality • Christian philosophy: yes, they are all equal in that all have an immortal soul • Hobbes: yes, they are all equal in one important respect: equality to kill

  9. Characteristics of the ‘state of nature’ • People are insecure, and live in a constant fear of injury and death • There is no place for industry, because the fruit of it is uncertain • Hence, no agriculture, navigation, building, culture, science • Life is short and unpleasant

  10. Equality • Everyone is strong enough to kill the strongest • Everyone thinks him/herself above average in practical intellectual ability (prudence) • But prudence is merely experience • Ergo, there are no natural distinctions distinguishing masters from slaves, or rulers from ruled

  11. The State of Nature • What is our most important natural desire? • Aristotle: the desire to have a good life • Hobbes: the desire to avoid violent death

  12. The State of Nature • Do our most important natural desires lead to social integration or disintegration? • Aristotle: our important natural desires lead to the creation of small communities and then to larger communities. We need and desire to be with others. • Hobbes: our important natural desires lead to social disintegration, given our natural equality in the ability to kill or be killed.

  13. The State of Nature • Are our most important desires naturally integrative or disintegrative?

  14. The State of Nature • Natural causes of conflict: • Distrust: I do not trust you not to kill me, so I try to kill you first • Love of gain (a natural desire): I know myself equal to you, and I want your things • Love of glory (a natural desire): I think myself (erroneously) better than you are, and think I deserve reparation

  15. The State of Nature

  16. The State of Nature • “In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” (Chapter 13)

  17. Rights • Is there a right to self-preservation? How far does it extend? • “even to one another’s bodies” in the state of nature • The justification of this right comes from the universal interest in preserving yourself

  18. Rights and justice • Because everyone has the same right to everything, there can be no justice or injustice in the state of nature • Justice is a human construction that we have to make possible

  19. Rights and justice • Is Hobbes right? • Are there any places in the state of nature today?

  20. Escaping the state of nature: the problem • There is an empirical problem: states actually exist • The problem is not only empirical but also normative: are we obligated to obey existing states? • We can only appeal to what is rational for us to do, not to God or some other agency

  21. How do we escape the state of nature? • Could the problem be solved through the prospect of future cooperation? • The stakes are always too high; death prevents future cooperation • Repeated cooperation does not solve the problem of how we come to have obligations to the state

  22. The sovereign • Hobbes’ solution: we all together transfer (most of) our right to everything to a specific person to act in our name to preserve ourselves • This person is then authorized (we are its “authors”) to use all means necessary to preserve the peace (to use “us”)

  23. The Sovereign

  24. The Sovereign • Why is this a solution? • The sovereign has enough power (all of us) to prevent attacks by any of us individually

  25. The Sovereign • Why is this a solution? • With the sovereign in place, what can be reasonably expected of others shifts: we can now expect that they will not attack us, so we can now speak of justice and injustice

  26. The Sovereign • Why is this a solution? • The act of transferring our right to everything to the sovereign creates a presumptive obligation to obey the sovereign

  27. The Sovereign • The Sovereign is an artificial person • It can be a single natural person (a monarch) • Or a collection of people that can act in a unified way (an assembly)

  28. Sovereignty and political regimes • For Hobbes, the most important thing is that there be a sovereign, not so much the form it takes • For Aristotle, the more important question is the form of government

  29. Politics • For Aristotle, the purpose of politics is to realize man’s highest good • The best regime most fully realizes the highest good, but other regimes also realize it to a smaller extent • For Hobbes, the purpose of politics is to avoid the worst of evils • Any regime avoids the worst of evils (war)

  30. Hobbes’ approach to the problem of conflict • Hobbes wants to remind us that our obligations to obey the state are rationally justified • They are obligations (i.e., they apply generally) • They are in accord with our self-interest, and in particular with our interest in avoiding violent death • Conflict arises ultimately from error and irrationality, but it does not require extensive education to solve it • Focuses on the internal problem of conflict, leaving the external problem unresolved

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