Hobbes view of morality

1
Hobbes view of morality

• There is no good except prudence. (nominalist)
• We seek our own advantage (are rational)
• We fear death
• Fear of death leads us to seek peace
• We accept the laws of nature which are only
  theorems which any rational man would accept.
• Men perform their covenants made.

2
State of Nature

• Hypothetical state before society
• All people essentially equal.
• solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short
• Everyone has unlimited right to do whatever he
  wishes
• What a person is entitled to do
• What a person cannot be obligated to renounce

3
Commonwealth

• Each individual transfers all rights to the
  sovereign
• Brings about Leviathan that mortal God to
  which we owe under the immortal God, our peace
  and defense.
• Peace is maintained by the fear of death
• Perpetual, undivided and absolute

4
commonwealth

• One person, of whose acts a great multitude, by
  mutual covenants one with another, have made
  themselves every one the author, to the end that
  he may use the strength and means of them all, as
  he shall think expedient, for their peace and
  common defence.