PHI 2183 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Real Humans, Atomism
Document Summary
In the state of nature, life is solitary, etc. It"s in everybody"s individual interest to escape the state of nature by agreeing amongst themselves. Instrumental no moral obligations before-hand: monopoly of power (sovereign) Contract theory: locke it"s implausible that we are under an obligation our ancestor"s made. So individuals outside of civil society would be like beasts or gods , not even real humans. For hobbes, individuals in the state of nature (outside of civil society) are morally competent beings with complete set of interests and capable of forming compacts and other moral undertakings. Typical interests of humans are engendered in society as social beings: desire for glory, honor, admiration, power, avoiding shame, ridicule, etc. And moral competence can only develop in social life (and even then not for everybody and not to the same degree). Political implications: hobbes" atomism lends itself to a restricted understand of vital human interests in social/political organization.