PHIL 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 48: Thomas Hobbes
2 May 2016
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The best life: to act unjustly, but have a good reputation. The worst life: to suffer injustice with no recourse. A general ethical theory that individuals make the right choices under a hypothetical social contract. The state of nature: a war of all against all. Defend yourself, seeking and using all the advantages of war. Any rational, self interested agent would have good reason to sign on. If someone"s compliance is in doubt, the covenant is invalid. And so we don"t really yet have justice and injustice. The success of the agreement depends on some kind of enforcement of the contract. Given the facts of life in the state of nature: Resulting in the state of war of all against all; The way to do that is by entering a contract. The bargain or contract is what makes honesty, generosity, fairness, non- violence,etc. What makes an act right is that it is.
