HOBBES

1. HOBBES NO JUSTICE OR INJUSTICE WITHOUT A CONTRACT

2. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Independent scholar Materialist Founder of Social Contract theory of justice and politics

3. The State of Nature Hypothetical [?] state of “war of every man against every man…right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place.” 588 War: “…consists not in the actual fighting but in the known disposition thereto…. All other time is PEACE.” Where “…the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” 588

4. The State of Nature “The desires and other passions of man are in themselves no sin. No more are the actions that proceed from those passions till they know a law that forbids them… nor can any law be made till they have agreed upon the person that shall make it.” SO: “Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice.” 588

5. The Right of Nature “…the liberty each man has to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature—that is to say, of his own life—and consequently of doing anything which, in his own judgement and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereto.”

6. Liberty “…the absence of external impediments; which impediments may oft take away part of a man’s power to do what he would…” 588-9 “To lay down a man’s right to anything is to divest himself of the liberty of hindering another of the benefit of his right to the same.” 589

7. Law of Nature “…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 takes away the means of preserving the same and to omit that by which he thinks it may be best preserved.”

8. 1st Law of Nature In the state of nature, “…as long as this natural right of every man to everything endures, there can be no security to any man…” SO: “…every man ought to endeavor 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.” 589

9. 2nd Law of Nature “…that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, 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.” 589

10. PEACE Peace is the result of a contract, which is a mutual surrender of rights or liberties 589-91. [War is maximum liberty; contracts, hence states, must reduce liberty.]

11. CONTRACTS (= covenants) Contracts may be “express or by inference” 590: by words or silence, actions or forbearance of action. No one can lay down the right to use force in defense of life and liberty. 590 “A covenant not to defend myself from force by force is always void.” 592

12. 3rd Law of Nature “that men perform their covenants made” “And in this law of nature consists the fountain and original of justice. For where no covenant has preceded…every man has right to every thing; and consequently no action can be unjust.” “…INJUSTICE is no other than the not performance [nonperformance] of covenant.” 593-4

13. ENFORCEMENT Since “nothing is more easily broken than a man’s word” 590, “there must be some coercive power to compel men…by the terror of some punishment greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their covenant.” 594 [SO: justice depends on the controlled use of violence within the state, which remains in a state of war with other states.]

14. REBELLION “He, therefore, that breaks his covenant…cannot be received into any society that unite themselves for peace and defense…” “…attaining sovereignty by rebellion…it is manifest that…by gaining it so others are taught to gain the same in like manner, the attempt thereof is against reason.”

15. [The Hobbesian Dynamic] 1. It is rational for people to join in self-defensive polities (cities, states, etc.). 2. It is rational for states to join in self-defensive confederations. 3. Ultimately this dynamic towards larger political groupings will lead to the creation of world federalism.