PHILOS 1B03 Lecture 2:
23 Jan 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Jan 15. 2019
Lecture 2 - Human Nature: Hobbes and Locke
A political argument
“We ought to use the death penalty as punishment for the most serious crimes in America. After
all, using the death penalty as a punishment is much cheaper than putting people in prison”
Inquiry
Facts it is contingent upon:
- The death penalty is cheaper than putting people in prison
●Incorrect
- Values only the monetary aspect as opposed to the ethical implications
- Argument formed on the assumption that the individual only values the economic
considerations
- The values are inappropriate in the context of deciding who lives and who dies
- Can be challenged by stating that this argument fails to consider whether those sentenced
to death penalty commited a crime substantial enough for such a punishment
Human nature
- refers to the idea that all human beings possess certain important features and
characteristics in commons
- Some scholars claim that certain individuals possess certain innate psychological
attitudes or moral capacities that influence how we relate to other human beings as well
as the rest of the natural and supernatural world
Thomas hobbes: Leviathan
- Deeply involved in politics during the first civil war
- Pessimistic scholar
- Without the state, society would dissolve
- Notorious for arguing that humans are inherently violent and manipulative
- Ideas are rooted in conceptualizations of a state of nature in which there is no government
to keep humans in check- no police, no authority, no reason
Equality
- Nature has made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind
- Although there are rare instances of those with infallibility such as science, mankind is
more or less equal enough- there is no considerable difference
