PHIL 1034 Lecture 12: Lecture 12 Notes - Hobbes on Justice and the Fool 10.1.15
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6 Oct 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Leviathan
Hobbes
Lecture Notes
10.1.2015
Hobbes on Justice and the Fool
Review
•1st law of nature – seek peace and maintain it
oOdds in the state of nature that you’re going to die from a very high threat
•2nd law of nature – limit right to have everything
oIntroduce mutual restrictions in order to maintain peace
•Hobbes says there are no restrictions on that what we assume is the betterment for
ourselves
•Right of nature – there are no restrictions on a material or a moral sort to use
whatever power I do have to act on my best judgment for what will retain my
desires
•There is nothing that is such that I may not judge it necessary to my survival
including bodies in the state of nature says Hobbes
•Hobbes says every voluntary act is aimed to help an object of desire
•Contract – mutual transferring of rights that is placing some sort of impediment
on my right
•Hobbes says not all contracts are valid contracts, some are void
•In the State of Nature, Hobbes says there are no valid contracts, hence there are
no genuine contracts
•Genuine /valid – there must be no reasonable suspicion that the other party wont
keep their end of the bargain
•But in the state of nature there’s a always a suspicion
Ch. 15
•Hobbes says you want to avoid the terms of the State of Nature, but there is no
“Best case scenario” like Glaucon proposed
•Requirements of justice/morality need a compromise
•3rd law of nature – Keep your contracts genuine/valid: be just
•Hobbes defines justice as keeping your valid contracts
•Need to have a government that has a sovereign power that can keep control over
the people and over any breach of the law issues swift, sure, and severe
punishment
•You have to instill fear in the other party enough that they do not want to break
their contract
•This is built upon the mutual knowledge of the sovereign power