101 



of law and order in general were matters of wide speculation, 

 that Hobbes wrote. 1 His attempt is to give a clear and concise 

 statement of the basis upon which society rests, and therefore 

 of the history and nature of morality. In order to do this, he 

 seeks to avoid the metaphysical and theological speculations 

 of his predecessors, and to investigate moral phenomena from 

 an independent point of view. Men now live together more 

 or less peaceably in societies. How may this be accounted for, 

 and upon what is the obligation to peace founded? 



According to Hobbes, man in his natural state has a right 

 to everything. "The right of nature' or jus naturale" for 

 Hobbes, "is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, 

 as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature, that 

 is to say, of his own life." This is, however, not identically the 

 meaning which was given above to the term 'natural'. Fur- 

 ther, each man's appetites or desires are 'naturally' directed 

 either to the preservation of his life, or to that heightening of 

 it which he feels as pleasure. But in the event of another man 

 coming upon the scene, the same rights belong to him also. 

 There would, then, necessarily result a state of war, if two or 

 more individuals desire that which only one or a few can 

 possess. But the conflict then arising imperils the life which 

 each man actually desires to preserve. At this point, as a 

 solution of the difficulty, man exercises his reason. Reason 

 suggests articles of peace by which men may reach an agree- 

 ment. These articles are the Laws of Nature. The first Law 

 of Nature is the law of self-preservation, a law "by which a 

 man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or 

 taketh away the means of preserving the same". From this 

 fundamental law of nature, by which men are commanded to 

 endeavour to obtain peace, is derived this second law, "that 

 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 his right to all things ; and to be contented with so 

 much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men 

 against himself". And in the chapter following, seventeen 

 such 'natural laws' are enumerated by Hobbes the laws of 

 justice, gratitude, modesty, equity, mercy, etc. 2 



These laws of nature, or what is here thesame thing, the laws 

 of Reason, are the covenants men make with each other in the 

 interests of peace. Yet, although men make covenants, their 

 'natural' desires remain just the same as they were before; 

 and the "laws of nature" "of themselves, without the terror 



^Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679. ltr . , T , 



'The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, Vol. Ill, "Leviathan , John 

 Bohn, London, 1889. Chs. 13, 14, and 15. 



