1 - Moral Judgments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2009
Summary
The laws of nature are immutable and eternal … [a]nd the science of them, is the true and only moral philosophy … and therefore the true doctrine of the laws of nature, is the true moral philosophy.
(EW III, 145–146; T 110)“The laws of nature”, Hobbes writes, “are the sum of moral philosophy”. An investigation into Hobbes's moral philosophy must therefore be concerned to understand those Laws of Nature. What it is for something to be a law of nature, how such laws are discovered, in what consists their normativity, what is their relation to personal prudence, divine command, and virtuous character, and how they direct submission to political authority – these are some of the questions that will have to be answered in the course of explicating Hobbes's moral philosophy. But it will be useful to begin by setting aside these questions while we briefly lay out the actual content of the norms Hobbes terms “Laws of Nature” and the casuistry of these laws – the conclusions Hobbes reaches from applying them in particular cases. These moral judgments form the data, or raw material, of Hobbes's moral philosophy, and one who has never looked carefully at the many “cases in the law of nature” Hobbes discusses may be surprised to realize how very many questions Hobbes thought could be settled by these laws. Also surprising is his ingenuity, subtlety, and occasional perversity in applying the Laws of Nature to particular cases.
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- Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas HobbesCases in the Law of Nature, pp. 13 - 55Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009