Write a Critical Commentary On Hobbe’s Arguments i

1898 Words8 Pages
Lily-May Smythe Write a critical commentary on Hobbe’s arguments in chapters 13 and 14 of ‘Leviathan’. Val Morgan Word Count: 1709 Lily-May Smythe Write a critical commentary on Hobbe’s arguments in chapters 13 and 14 of ‘Leviathan’. In a world obsessed with the problems of power, three centuries on, many continue to still question the perennial fascination with the works of Thomas Hobbes and in particular, his ‘Leviathan’. Split in to four sections, ‘he asserts the equal natural rights of man, and tries to put the two things together to get a theory of right, and obligation, as well as a theory of power.’[1] Beginning with Part One: Of Man, Hobbes endeavours to analyse society as a whole from the very first principles, starting with Man and the Senses. Through a chain of definitions, an example being that of the imagination as ‘nothing but decaying sense’[2], Hobbes is able to ascertain three basic causes of the conflict in this state of nature: competition, diffidence and glory: ‘The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation’[3]. Hobbe’s first law of nature states ‘that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war’[4]. However the second law is that in order to secure the advantages of peace ‘a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself‘[5]. For Part One at least, this is the beginning of various contracts; performing of which is the third law of nature, concluding that injustice, therefore, is failure to perform in a covenant; all else is just. Remaining with the topic of Nature,
Open Document