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Hobbes, Leviathan Introduction

Hobbes, Leviathan Introduction. PHIL 2345 2008-09. Thomas Hobbes. Who was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)?. Tutor in noble family English political theorist Translator of Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1628 Author of De Cive , 1642, and revision: Leviathan ,1651

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Hobbes, Leviathan Introduction

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  1. Hobbes,LeviathanIntroduction PHIL 2345 2008-09

  2. Thomas Hobbes

  3. Who was Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679)? • Tutor in noble family • English political theorist • Translator of Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 1628 • Author of De Cive, 1642, and revision: Leviathan,1651 • Controversy surrounded this work

  4. Who Rules? • 17th cent. theories of Gov't • Date back to Middle Ages • Divine Right of Kings • King is responsible to God alone • Anointing in coronation ceremony • God will punish him if he is a bad ruler • People must accept whatever he does as if it were God’s will • They may not overthrow the king!

  5. Mayflower Compact, 1620 • Compact, covenant, contract = syns. • Social compact model in separatist churches (Reformation, 16th cent.) • Also joint-stock Companies • Mutual agreement (‘covenant’)—all adult males signed • ‘Civill body politick’ • For ‘generall good’ (like ‘general will’—Rousseau).

  6. Influence of English Civil War(1642-1651) '... the estate of Man can never be without some incommodity or other; and ... the greatest ... in respect of the miseries, and horrible calamities, [is] that [which] accompan[ies] a Civill Warre’ ... (ch. 18).

  7. State of Nature = State of War • SoN = War of all against all (ch. 13): • ‘every man is Enemy to every man’; • No economy or trade b/c no industry, no farming is possible; • No shelter • No arts, letters or science • ‘continuall feare and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short’.

  8. Right and Laws of Nature • Right of Nature: • permissive liberty to preserve oneself (not obligatory, however) • Laws of Nature: prudential, eternal rules derived by reason (rational choice): • 1st: endeavour Peace, but in its absence, use 'helps of...Warre'; • 2nd: surrender right to all things if others do so as well (mutual cooperation, Prisoner’s Dilemma); • 3d: 'performe Covenants made'--foundation of Justice/Compact.

  9. Laws of Nature • Science of Laws of Nature based on • Science of Good/Evil • Good/Evil = Appetites/Aversions • Epicurus (ancient Greece) bases his philosophy of pleasure/pain • Passions are no Sin (ch. 13) • No ref. to Christian morality in this stage

  10. Exit from SoN/SoW (ch. 13) • equality of hope & ability (everyone can hurt everyone else; see also ch. 15) • fear, danger of violent death • own judge/executioner • rt. to each other's bodies • material deprivations • no sociability w/out a power to awe

  11. Why do we exit? • Our Passions = key to choice to exit: • fear of death; • Is this a true Prisoner’s Dilemma? • Death is the consequence of remaining in the SoN; • desire for comfort; • hope to obtain them.

  12. Conditions of Compact: • Unconditional covenant of every one w/ every one; no exceptions/free riders: • 'This is more than Consent, or Concord; it is a reall Unitie of them all, in one and the same Person, made by Covenant of every man with every man ...' • Duress allowed? • Yes: 'Covenants entred into by fear, in the condition of meer Nature, are obligatory' and enforced by Fear of reprisal (ch. 14; also ch. 18) • Use of force to enforce the compact: • 'Covenants without the Sword, are but Words‘.

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