Hobbes' Political Obligation

Question 1

What is the SCT and what does it mean?

Answer 1

Social Contract Theory - argues that there are political obligations. We have political obligations because, in some sense, we have agreed or consented to undertaking them.

Question 2

What are the six common thoughts about political obligation and what do they mean?

Answer 2

• Comprehensiveness: citizens can be politically obligated with respect to a wide range of areas. (e.g. duty to obey drug laws, traffic laws, taxation laws, national service, etc)
• Significant Content-Indepedence: the duty to obey the laws is not tied to the laws’ particular content.
• Particularlity: citizen’s duty is owed only to the state that controls the territory.
• Generality: all citizens have a duty to obey the laws.
• Pro tanto: the duty can in some circumstances be overridden by other considerations. (Speeding to get someone to hospital)
• Moral duty: the duty is moral in nature.

Question 3

What is philosophical anarchism and what are the two arguments for them?

Answer 3

Philosophical Anarchism: denies that anyone has political obligations (but needn’t think that we should overthrow the state).

A Priori (deriving from reason)  Argument (e.g. Woolf):
- It is our primary moral duty to act autonomously and a duty t obey the government contradicts this. we have no duty to obey. 

A Posteriori (deriving from experience) Argument (e.g. Simmons):
All extant attempts have failed to establish wide ranging political obligation.

Question 4

What are the two other (Not Hobbes) arguments for political obligation?

Answer 4

Utilitarian:
P1. Morally justified actions, policies and institutions maximise general happiness.
P2. The state promotes general happiness better than having no state.
P3. The state/no state are the only options.
———————————————————————————–
C: The state is morally justified.

Divine Command Theory:
God’s will is that we heed the commands of a particular individual or group of individuals. (The Pope, Queen Elizabeth)

Question 5

What are the characteristics of the state of nature?

Answer 5

• a place without state of civil government
• state of perpetual war (always threat)
• everyone has natural equality
• scarcity of resources

Question 6

What leads to the state of nature being a state of war?

Answer 6

We all share the key desires:

• self-preservation
• commodious living
• improving through industry

Natural equality leads to equality of hope of gaining resources → competition (given scarcity of resources)→ Diffidence, mistrust → Desire for glory → Constant threat

Question 7

Why does Hobbes present this ‘state of nature’?

Answer 7

To show that the alternative to political obligation is much worse than obeying a sovereign.

Question 8

What is the right of nature?

Answer 8

A natural right for self-preservation, a general rule that prevents us from doing self-destructive things.

Question 9

What are the first two laws of nature?

Answer 9

The fundamental law: ‘every man ought to endeavour peace, where there is no hope of peace, resort to survival of yourself’

The second law: must be prepared to give up our natural rights to everything for the sake of peace. Accept as much liberty for ourselves as we would give to others.

Question 10

What are Hobbes’ two types of being bound to the laws of nature and which is the case in his argument?

Answer 10

In foro interno: to be bound to wish them to be the case
In foro externo: to be bound to follow them
Hobbes believes that in the state of nature we are only bound in foro interno.

Question 11

What are the two forms of instituting the sovereign?

Answer 11

Commonwealth by institution: come together and make an agreement to develop a state. (We are primarily concerned with this bad boii)

Commonwealth by acquisition: achieved through force and threat. Do it out of fear for one another.

Question 12

What power does the sovereign have (even if they are bad)?

Answer 12

• The sovereign retains the full right of nature
• Sovereign can do anything

We still must oblige because:

• We have consented and are the author of the sovereign’s actions.
• The Sovereign’s power is SO GREAT that resistance will be catastrophic. Obedience to the Sovereign therefore becomes the first and most important principle to follow from our fundamental commitment to self-preservation.

Question 13

What is the only right we retain/limitation of the sovereign?

Answer 13

• If the sovereign threatens your life/orders you to do something that will lead to your destruction
• If the sovereign becomes ineffective

Question 14

What is the big bad summary of all of this shite? (7 points)

Answer 14

The state of nature is a state of war

To escape the state of nature we must institute a sovereign

The sovereign allows us to achieve a better outcome

Covenant together to create this sovereign

Transfer our rights to them (except our right of self-defense)

We have to obey the sovereign on all matters UNLESS

a) He threatens our life
b) He has lost power

It is the badness of the state of nature that sets limits on our obligation

Question 15

Explain the ‘implausible state of nature’ objection and any counter arguments. Whose objection was it?

Answer 15

Rousseau:
What Hobbes is describing is driven by his perception of humans as they have been shaped by our society, this is not an accurate presentation of how we would be without any form of government

Counter:
Challenge Rousseau (Remember that Hobbes has a fairly plausible story about human motivation)
Rousseau’s response doesn't matter – we want to know whether we have a duty to obey here and now

Question 16

Explain the ‘false dilemma’ objection and any counter arguments.

Answer 16

An absolute sovereign may not be needed, simply governing powers

Counter:
This can cause potential conflicts between political powers, but will this ever lead to actual physical danger

Question 17

Explain the ‘uncertainty of limits of obedience’ objection and any counter arguments.

Answer 17

Hobbes states that we can resist the sovereign when they threaten our self-preservation. But how imminent does that threat need to be?

Question 18

Explain the ‘role of consent’ objection and any counter arguments.

Answer 18

Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory argues that we have consented to political obligation, but …
No one now was actually parties to this agreement (we were all born into a society in which we had to oblige)
Hobbes believes that submitting/not resisting serves as consent
Obviously a very weak notion of consent

Response: We would consent, insofar as we are rational, to the Institution of a Sovereign if we were in the State of Nature.
→ But hypothetical consent is not real consent!

Further counter: it’s not consent which is doing the justificatory work, but the positive features of having a sovereign

A Heterodox Answer: consent doesn’t really play any role for Hobbes

Question 19

What are the four objections of Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory?

Answer 19

• Implausible state of nature
• false dilemma
• uncertainty of limits of obedience
• role of consent