Hobbes

Question 1

What ideas are presented in Hobbes’ Behemoth?

Answer 1

1. Giant land creature: Chaos of society without law
2. “Natural condition of mankind” is world of “war, where every man is enemy to every man”
   3: Law of Nature: Natural to defend and preserve selves

Question 2

What ideas are presented in Hobbes’ Leviathan?

Answer 2

1. Giant sea creature: STATE POWER subduing societal chaos with OVERWHELMING COERCIVE FORCE
2. Law of Nature: Natural to seek peace to the end of preserving selves
3. SOCIAL CONTRACT with sovereign: People sacrifice some autonomy for sake of self-preservation

Question 3

According to Hobbes, why should people obey the law?

Answer 3

Law of Nature (Leviathan): Sensible to be prudential in action; natural to seek peace and defend themselves

Question 4

According to Hobbes, what is the relationship between morality and law?

Answer 4

Sovereign’s will overrides scripture, morality and tradition: MORALITY SUBORDINATE TO LAW

Question 5

What are the 3 lines of interpretation of Hobbes’ arguments?

Answer 5

1. Orthodox View: Hobbes is a legal positivist who argues that law comes only from a sovereign (Loughlin, Harrison, Lobban)
2. The sovereign is complemented/influenced by another power (Poole, Fox-Decent)
3. Reduced Authoritarianism: State’s artificial role is made up of laws of nature; civil society thus inherently has moral shape (Ristroph, Dyzenhaus)

Question 6

What are 3 criticisms of Hobbes’ theory?

Answer 6

1. What if the sovereign commands you to harm yourself?
2. Tension between enacted civil law from sovereign and prerogative powers that may act against enacted law
3. Hobbes’ theory of punishment is authoritarian