PHILOS 1B03 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Jeremy Bentham, Robert Paul Wolff, Henry David Thoreau
27 Feb 2017
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Political philosophers enlist theories of human nature in order to arrive at a conception of legitimate state authority. However unequal individual dispositions, there is a natural equality among. Men" with respect to their physical and intellectual abilities. Everyone has a natural right to everything. Conflict is inevitable, and security (of person, possessions, etc. ) impossible. The problem: limited resources + unlimited right + unequal dispositions = state of war (all against all) State of nature = state of war. All men" were naturally free (subject to no one else"s desires) and equal (each individual endowed with the same freedom as every other) But a state of nature is not a state of license (as it is with hobbes) Natural laws (known through reason) govern the state of (human) nature. Natural laws stipulate that no one should harm another and, should harm be done, that each individual reserves the right to punish the offender. State of nature = state of peace.
