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
People have the capacity to reason
They weigh the costs and benefits
They consider the consequences of their actions

HOBBES ASSUMPTIONS, CONTD

People are self-interested
They seek to attain what they desire
Security (avoid death and injury)
Reputation (status)
Gain (possessions)

ASSUMPTIONS, CONTD
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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

THE STATE OF NATURE

Are our most important desires naturally integrative or
disintegrative?

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

THE STATE OF NATURE

Trust and
cooperate

Do not trust,
attack

Trust and
cooperate

We gain from
cooperating:
arts, sciences,
etc.

One of us gets
killed, the other
lives and takes
your property

Do not trust,
attack

One of us gets
killed, the other
lives and takes
your property

One or both of
us may get
killed

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)

RIGHTS
Is there a right to self-preservation? How far does it extend?
even to one anothers bodies in the state of nature

The justification of this right comes from the universal

interest in preserving yourself

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

RIGHTS AND JUSTICE

Is Hobbes right?
Are there any places in the state of nature today?

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

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

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)

THE SOVEREIGN

THE SOVEREIGN
Why is this a solution?
The sovereign has enough power (all of us) to prevent attacks by
any of us individually

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

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

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)

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

POLITICS
For Aristotle, the purpose of politics is to realize mans
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)

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