Week #2: (State of Nature) Flashcards
Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau
What is the State of Nature?
a situation where no state exists and no one possesses political power
Hobbes’ book name
Leviathan
Hobbes: Two keys to human nature
- self knowledge (introspection)
- materialism - we are matter in motion
knowledge of the general principles of physics
Hobbes: felicity?
- continual success in achieving the objects of desire, sought by human beings
- The search to secure felicity brings us to war in the state of nature
Hobbes:power
one’s present means to attain some future, apparent good
Hobbes: three reasons to attack in state of nature?
- Competition: gain
- Lack of trust: safety
- Glory: reputation
Hobbes: Natural right of liberty?
- The liberty of freedom of each individual in the state of nature to do whatever you think is necessary to preserve/protect yourself
- The right to decide whether someone else is a threat
Hobbes: Laws of nature?
- seek peace if you can get it
- lay down natural right, if others do too
- perform your covenants, contract requiring trust
Hobbes: Individual and collective rationality
- It is rational for individuals to attack others
- It is rational for collective to seek peace
Nash equilibrium
- The best strategy is given by an individual given what everyone else is doing
Locke: State of Peace, or War?
- Peace
Locke: Equality
- No one is the natural subordinate of anybody else
- Morally speaking there is no natural superior
- Immoral to claim natural authority over someone else
Locke: Law of nature
- Everyone should be preserved as much as may be
* Prescribes duty: if each of us should be preserved, it makes us responsible to protect and not kill
Locke: Natural Liberty
Liberty is not licence, you’re not free to do what you don’t have the right to do
Locke vs. Hobbes - Equality, Law of Nature, Natural Liberty
Locke
- Equality: everyone is equal in rights
- Law of nature: everyone must be preserved, Gods laws & duty to preserve
- Natural liberty: what your free to do if you have a right to do
Hobbes
-Equality - equal vulnerability
- Law of nature – seek peace, lay down natural right, perform covenants
- Natural liberty – preserve/protect yourself by any means necessary & decide if others are threats
Locke: Enforcing law of nature
- Law of nature is the law of reason, and it is God’s law
- Not in vain, so need enforcer
- But there must be an enforcer of the law of nature EPLN
Executive power of Law of Nature
- Everyone is the enforcer
- EPLN – includes right to punish
Locke vs. Hobbes: Scarcity vs. Abundance
Hobbes: -Natural scarcity and conflict Locke: - Natural abundance of land - Cultivate your own land
Locke vs. Hobbes: Why we need a state?
Problem: administration of justice
-Conflict about the law of nature
-When is preserving ok or necessary
- Some lack power to enforce law of nature
-If someone is bigger or stronger, they can’t enforce the law of nature
-There’s no impartial administration of justice
oThe state is need to ensure that we can overcome the inconveniences of the state of nature
Rousseau: Human Nature
- Desire for self-preservation: Natural savages
- Pity or compassion for the suffering of others
Rousseau: Social man vs. natural savage
- Hobbes and Locke describe civilized man, although they like to believe they are speaking about a natural man
- Civilization has corrupted us
- Savage is unaware of morality
Rousseau: Self-preservation vs. compassion
- Scarcity creates a problem
- Self- preservation trumps pity
- So, war seems inevitable
Rousseau: The natural savage
- Solitary, no language, fears only pain and hunger
- Desires only food, sex, and sleep
Rousseau: How change happens in the state of nature
- Free will & The capacity for self-improvement
- Scarcity to innovation – tool making to progress and collaboration
- Cooperation
- Leisure, luxury goods, corrupted needs
Further developments in the state of nature
- Language and comparison of talents
- Agriculture, metallurgy, property, rules of justice, and inequality
- Leads to the state of war
- The rich devise a brilliant plan to hoodwink the poor
Rousseau: Cooperation through Innovation
- Mutuality of interest spurs collective pursuits
- The advantages of living in groups, becomes apparent
- The habit of living in these new conditions gave rise to feelings of humanity
- Conjugal love, paternal affection
Rousseau: Leisure through Innovation
- Man creates goods past survival needs, and starts to create luxury goods
- Man develops ‘corrupted needs’
Rousseau: Transition from state of natural to state
- Languages and societies develop and the opportunity for comparison of talents
- Development of agriculture and metallurgy
- Claiming private property,
Rousseau: State is born
- We arrive at war:
- Man comes to the plan to institute social rules of justice to ensure peace:
