Hobbes Leviathan Leaving the State of Nature PHIL

Hobbes, Leviathan Leaving the State of Nature PHIL 2345 2008 -09

Hobbes’s Leviathan: full-size title page

Reasons to cooperate/leave So. N/So. W (ch. 13) • equality of hope & ability – i. e. everyone can hurt everyone else – We know there is relative equality b/c otherwise one superior man or group would rule – Civil laws introduce inequality; anti-Aristotelian, no natural hierarchy (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

Why do we exit? • Our Passions— – Caveat: even if one is not personally seeking domination, the conditions of Son/So. W force him to acts of aggression. • Fear of death; – Is this a true Prisoner’s Dilemma? – Death is the consequence of remaining in the So. N; • Desire for comfort, safety, security, a long life, care for the family—’conjugal’ passion; • Life otherwise nasty, brutish, short; • Hope to obtain it (would we have hope? ).

Transfer of Right (ch. 14) • ‘Right is layd aside, either by simply Renouncing it; or by Transferring it to another’; • ‘in consideration of some Right reciprocally transferred to himselfe; or for some other good…’. • Simply renouncing: does not care to whom • Transferring: benefit intended to certain person(s) • Obliged not to hinder those to whom he has transferred it.

A valid Covenant? • Mere trust in future performance is not enough—such a Covenant is void; • Future fulfillment cannot be counted on; • Force is required – to reign in men’s passions (which can include ‘conjugal’ passion—care for one’s family) • Cannot promise that which is impossible • Can be freed from obligation: ‘Forgiven’.

Impossible Covenants • With animals • With God, except by mediation of his spokespersons (but on what grounds do we believe them? ) • Social animals (bees, ants) don’t need Covenants; we do • Aristotle was wrong.

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. . . ‘ (ch. 17). • Duress allowed? – natural law permits covenants concluded on the basis of fear: 'Covenants entred into by fear, in the condition of meer Nature, are obligatory' and enforced by fear of reprisal (ch. 14; also ch. 18) – E. g. agreeing to pay a ransom—it is a ‘Contract’, life in exchange for money; ‘bound to pay it until Civill Law discharge me’; – dissenters may be pressed into agreement on the grounds that they signalled their acquiescence by entering the Assembly (ch. 18).

Motivation to comply • Third Law of Nature: – ‘That men performe their Covenants made’ (ch. 15); • Yet ‘force of Words’ is too weak • What are motivations to comply? – – active awareness of the consequences of our actions: either fear of the consequences of breaking their word, or pride “in appearing not to need to breake it” (ch. 15) foresight: men restrain their passions out of ‘foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby’ (ch. 17) • Duress may also be used—legitimately! • But cannot be forced to accuse oneself, to not resist arrest, punishment.

The Sovereign • Sovereign = Artificial Man (see ch. 16) – ‘A Multitude of men are made One Person, when they are by one man, or one Person, Represented – Multitude = multiple authors of what representative does • Sovereign = reduction of multiple wills to ‘one Man, or. . . one Assembly of men, that may reduce all their Wills, by plurality of voices, unto one Will. . . to appoint one man, or Assembly of men, to beare their Person’ (ch. 17); • Sovereign acts as agent of all: – ‘every one to. . . acknowledge himselfe to be Author of whatsoever he that so beareth their Person, shall Act’ – Majority = voice of multitude (ch. 16). • - Sovereign acts for ‘the Common Peace and Safetie’

Sovereign power (ch. 18) • Each is obliged to others to be author of what Sovereign does • Hence no breach possible by Sovereign • No subject may be freed from obligation to obey; • No man who has Sovereign power may be put to death (against regicide of Charles I) • Agreement of each w/ each, not of each w/ Sovereign—no Kingship on condition; • Dissenters/free riders not allowed; must enter Covenant w/ the rest.

What is Leviathan? • A sea monster representing evil and the forces of chaos (The Bible, Job, 13 -29): – Many-headed, scaly, fire-breathing; – Why would Hobbes select this for the title? • ‘that great Leviathan, called a commonwealth or state (in Latin civitas) which is but an artificial man…and in which the sovereignty is an artificial soul’. • ‘a real unitie of them all’ (ch. 17). • Sovereign may use force to enforce the compact: – 'Covenants without the Sword, are but Words‘; – men require ‘a Common Power, to keep them in awe, and to direct their actions to the Common Benefit’ (ch. 17)

Hobbes’s Sovereign, or ‘Leviathan’

Question • Hobbes claims that it is rationally in one's best interests to keep one's covenants /contracts/compacts, because those who don't keep them must be cast out of society. • However, is this true of everyone? Is it true of every individual contract? • Can Hobbes give other reasons for keeping one's word and self-interest always coinciding?