Hobbes Leviathan CRE Review

4 Premises for Hobbes’ Argument

1. The most basic human inclination is the desire for “power after power”

2. The desire for power is perpetual (we are insecure)

3. Severe scarcity exists in nature

4. Equality of Man

What is Hobbes’ conclusion?

Reason requires that all rational beings should covenant to create an absolute sovereign because it is the best way to avoid the State of Nature which is in our best interest of self-preservation

What does Premise 1 mean?

Human beings are driven by an insatiable desire to secure their future by gaining power of resources

What does Premise 2 mean?

This desire stems from deep insecurity — we seek power to guard against potential threats and maintain safety

What does Premise 3 mean?

Resources (e.g. food, shelter, security) are limited, so individuals are in constant competition for them.

What does Premise 4 mean?

Humans are naturally equal in terms of their ability to kill or be killed, which makes everyone a potential threat to everyone else

Why are Hobbes’ premises so important?

Hobbes need his premises to be necessarily true b/c if they are not they do not require his conclusion

What is the problem with Premise 1?

There are also a wealth of examples that cast doubt on this assumption—every example of a person contributing time and money to a social cause constitutes a counter-example to this assumption. While not obviously false, then, this assumption is so vulnerable to counter-arguments that it must be viewed as an inappropriate foundational assumption.

What is the problem with Premise 2?

Not inherently controversial

What is the problem with Premise 3?

It is not obviously false, but it could certainly be reasonably rejected—both Locke and Rousseau do reject it. It is merely a speculative claim, and there is no reason to believe that scarcity in nature was sufficiently extreme to provoke the intense conflict that Hobbes describes

What is the promise with Premise 4?

Not problematic. The assumption that humans are essentially equal in their faculties might seem controversial, but all Hobbes needs for his argument is the weaker claim that even the weakest has the force enough to kill the strongest

What is the biggest contribution that Hobbes makes to the history of ideas?

That the legitimacy of government is derived from the consent of the governed. He was the first to root this idea in self-interest and reason

What type of view does Hobbes generate his argument from?

Worst-case

Why is this problematic?

This weakens his argument because he merely shows that people would choose the state in preference to the worst that they could possibly expect from nature, not what they could reasonably expect from nature.

How are his premises and conclusion different?

His claims are descriptive but his conclusion is normative

How does he require consent to the covenant?

The only way to avoid the state of war is to consent to the absolute authority of the sovereign. The covenant is therefore both the necessary and the sufficient condition of survival. Consent to the covenant is thus required by reason, since it secures our highest interest, which is survival.