Alarcon, Maria Teresa L.

JD- 1

THOMAS HOBBES
Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher born in
Westport, England. He educated at Oxford University. When he was forty, Hobbes discovered
Euclids elements, a work that helped shift Hobbes interest from classical literature to mathematics
and analysis. This book made him in love with geometry. The next stage of his development was the
publication of his book Leviathan, which is a book on social and political philosophy. His books De
Cive and Leviathan describe the relation between citizens and sovereign.
BODIES IN MOTION / METAPHYSICS
The basis of Hobbes for metaphysics is that everything is matter and all that exists are
bodies in motion that continually move from place to place. Philosophy according to Hobbes is
concerned chiefly with the causes and characteristics of bodies. There are two main types of bodies;
first is the physical body, which is called the natural body, being the work of nature. Second is the
political body, which is called a commonwealth, made by the wills and agreement of men. There is
one principal characteristic that all bodies share and that alone makes it possible to understand how
they came to be and do what they do, and that characteristic is motion.
Motion is a key concept in Hobbes thought only bodies exist, that knowable reality consists
solely of bodies. Hobbes did not admit that anything such as spirit or God exists if these refer to
beings that have no bodies. Of Gods existence, Hobbes writes, By the visible things in this world,
and their admirable order, a man may conceive there is a cause of them, which men called God; and
yet have no idea or image of him in his mind. Hobbes set out to explain both physical and mental
events as nothing more than bodies in motion. Motion says Hobbes is a continual relinquishing of
one place acquiring another. Motion is not only locomotion in the simple sense but also what we
know as the process of change.
Hobbes refers to two kinds of motion that are peculiar to animals or people, namely, vital and
voluntary motions. Vital motions begin through process of birth, continue through life. It includes
such motions such as pulse, nutrition, excretion, to the course of the blood and breathing. To which
motions needs no help of imagination. Voluntary motions are those motions such as going,
speaking, deliberately moving our limbs. It is evident that in voluntary motions, imagination is the first
internal beginning of all voluntary motions.
The human mind works in various ways ranging from perception, imagination, memory and
thinking. All these types of mental activity are fundamentally the same because they are all motions
in our bodies. Hobbes said that perception, imagination and memory are alike. Perception is our
ability to sense things. The thought process begins when an external body moves and causes a
motion inside of us. For example, as when we see a tree, seeing the tree is perception or sensation.
When we look at an object, we see what Hobbes called a phantasm. A phantasm is the image within
us caused by an object outside of us. While imagination is the retention of the image within us after
the object has been removed. Imagination is simply a lingering-effect or what Hobbes called a
decaying-sensation. When, later, we wish to express this decay and show that the sense is fading,
we call this memory. Thinking is something quite different from sensation and memory. In sensation,
the sequence of images in our mind is determined by what is happening outside of us, whereas in
thinking, we seem to put ideas together whichever way we wish. And that was how Hobbes
explained the mechanical view of human thought.
THE STATE OF NATURE
Hobbes describes people, as they appear in what he calls the state of nature. The state of
nature is the condition of people before there was any state or civil society. In this state of nature, all
humans are equal and equally have the right to whatever they consider necessary for survival.
Equality here means simply that people are capable of hurting their neighbours and taking what they
judge need for their own protection.
The right of all to all that prevails in the state of nature does not mean that one person has
a right whereas others have corresponding duties. The word right in the bare state of nature is a
persons freedom to do what he would, and against whom he though fit and to possess, use and
enjoy all that he would or could get. The driving force in a person is the will to survive, and the
psychological attitude pervading all people is fear the fear of death, particularly violent death. In
the state of nature, all people are relentlessly pursuing whatever acts they think will secure their
safety. This anarchic condition wherein the state of nature is of people moving against each other is
what Hobbes calls the war of all against all.
Hobbes analyzes human motivation by saving that everyone possesses a twofold drive,
namely appetite and aversion, and they have the same meaning as the words love and hate. People
are attracted to what they think will help them survive, and hates whatever meaning each individual
gives them. People call good whatever they love, and evil to whatever they hate. We are
fundamentally egotistical, that we are concerned chiefly with our own survival, and we identify
goodness with our own appetites.
It would appear that in the state of nature, there is no obligation for people to respect others
and there is no morality in the traditional sense of goodness and justice. Given this egotistical view
of human nature, it would appear also that we do not possess the capacity to create an ordered and
peaceful society. But Hobbes argued that several logical conclusions or consequences can be
deduced from our concern for our survival; among these is what he called natural laws.
Natural law, says Hobbes, is a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, telling what to
do and what not to do. If the major premise is that I want to survive, I can logically deduce, even in
the state of nature, certain rules of behaviour that will help me survive.
The first law of nature is, That everyone is ought to seek peace and follows it.Now, this law
that urges to seek peace is natural because it is a logical extension of concern for survival. It is
obvious that there is a better chance to survive if there is peace.
The second law which is derived from the first law is; a man be willing, when others are so
too, as far forth, as for peace, and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down his right
to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men
against himself. More simply, we should willingly give up our hostile rights toward other people if
they are willing to give up their hostile rights toward us.
Hobbes was aware that anarchy is the logical outcome of egotistical individuals all deciding
how best to survive. We should thus avoid this condition of anarchy to the extent that it is in our
power. The chief cause of this condition is the conflict of individual and egotistical judgments. By
following the dictates of natural law, however, we can seek peace, renounce some of our rights or
freedoms and enter into a social contract. We will thereby create an artificial person, called a
commonwealth or state.
THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
The contract by which we avoid the state of nature and enter into civil society is an
agreement between individuals, as if every man should say to every man, I authorize and give up
my right of governing myself, to this man or to this assembly of men, on this condition, that you give
up your right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner.
Two things stand out clearly in this contract, first, the parties to the contract are individuals
who promise each other to hand over their right to govern themselves to the sovereign; it is not a
contract between the sovereign and the citizens. The sovereign has absolute power to govern and is
in no way subject to the citizens.
Second, Hobbes clearly states that the sovereign can be either this man or assembly of
men, suggesting that, in theory at least, his view of sovereignty was not identified with any particular
form of government.
Having shown that in the state of nature anarchy is the logical consequence of independent
individual judgments, he concluded that the only way to overcome such anarchy is to make a single
body out of the several bodies of all the citizens. The sovereign now acts not only on behalf of the
citizens but as if he embodies the will of the citizens- thereby affirming an identity between the wills
of the sovereign and the citizens.
Resistance to the sovereign by a citizen is therefore illogical on two counts; first, such
resistance would amount to resistance of oneself; second, to resist is to revert independent
judgment, which is to revert to the state of nature or anarchy.
CIVIL LAW VERSUS NATURAL LAW
In the judicial sense or legal sense, a law is defined as a command of the sovereign. It
follows that where there is no sovereign, no there is law. Hobbes affirmed that even in the state of
nature, people have knowledge of the natural law and is binding even in the state of nature.
But only after there is a sovereign can there be a legal order, because only when there is a
sovereign can there be a legal order, because only when there the apparatus of law in which the
power of enforcement is central. Without the power to enforce, said Hobbes, covenants are mere
words.