Lecture Notes on Thomas Hobbes and the Ethics of Killing

Flashcards on key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture discussing Thomas Hobbes's philosophy and the ethics of killing, including McMahan's Harm-Based and Time-Relative Interest Accounts.

Thomas Hobbes

Seventeenth-century English philosopher who wrote Leviathan and defended the absolute rule of sovereigns.

Leviathan (1649)

A work by Thomas Hobbes stating his views on the nature of the world and of human beings, and developing an account of the nature of the modern state.

The Value of a Man Is His Price (Hobbes)

Hobbes' claim that the worth of a man is equivalent to the price that would be given for the use of his power, dependent on the need and judgement of another.

Honouring (Hobbes)

Manifestation of the value we set on one another, to value a man at a high rate.

Dishonouring (Hobbes)

Manifestation of the value we set on one another, to value a man at a low rate.

Dignity (Hobbes)

The publique worth of a man, which is the Value set on him by the Common-wealth.

Jeff McMahan

Professor of philosophy who writes about the ethics of life and death.

Harm-Based Account of Killing

The view that acts of killing are normally wrong principally because of the harm they inflict on the victims.

Time-Relative Interest Account of Killing

The view that the principal feature of killing that makes it wrong is the fact that it frustrates the victim's interest in continuing to live.

Assumption of Correlative Variation

If an act of killing is wrong because it harms its victim, then another act that harms its victim to a greater extent will be wrong to a greater degree.

Harm-Based Account of the wrongness of killing

Acts of killing are normally wrong principally because of the harm they inflict on the victims, and that the degree to which an act of killing is wrong varies with the degree of harm it causes to the victim, other things being equal.

Time-Relative Interest Account of the wrongness of killing

What is fundamentally wrong about killing, when it is wrong, is that it frustrates the victim's time-relative interest in continuing to live.