PHIL 307 Lecture 2: 1-13-16
26 May 2016
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The state does lots of things that are to our advantage. We are much better off living under a state and whatever its laws may be. In the state of nature (absent to government) there would be no entity to keep order. Hobbs argued that in a state of nature, everyone would be at the mercy of everyone else. Life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. We are all better off living under common authority which is sufficiently powerful to keep order. Structures often provide various opportunities that we might not have otherwise. The cost is that the state imposes requirements on un which are backed by coercive threats. We wouldn"t be free to do all the things we would be able to do if the government was absent. Is there any reason, aside from self-interest, why we should do what the law.
