Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A note on references
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND TO HOBBES'S PHILOSOPHY
- PART II LAW, MORALITY, AND GOD
- Chapter 3 POWER, OBLIGATION, AND JUSTICE
- Chapter 4 LAW
- Chapter 5 THE HISTORY AND IDEA OF COVENANTS
- Chapter 6 SOVEREIGN-MAKING COVENANTS
- PART III RELIGION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE AND POLITICS
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Curley on Hobbes
- Appendix B Skinner on Hobbes
- Appendix C The frontispiece to Leviathan
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A note on references
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND TO HOBBES'S PHILOSOPHY
- PART II LAW, MORALITY, AND GOD
- Chapter 3 POWER, OBLIGATION, AND JUSTICE
- Chapter 4 LAW
- Chapter 5 THE HISTORY AND IDEA OF COVENANTS
- Chapter 6 SOVEREIGN-MAKING COVENANTS
- PART III RELIGION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE AND POLITICS
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Curley on Hobbes
- Appendix B Skinner on Hobbes
- Appendix C The frontispiece to Leviathan
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the last chapter, I argued that Hobbes believes that the root of all obligation is God's omnipotence, because irresistible power directed to an object literally binds, ties or constrains that object to a certain course of action. Because humans are roughly equal to each other, they are not naturally obliged to anyone other than God. They can create obligations, however, by using the laws of nature, which are God's commands, to create a human sovereign who acquires irresistible power. In this chapter, I shall discuss those laws of nature. The distinction between right and law is crucial to this discussion. Once that distinction is explained, I shall discuss the nature of law and say why it is important to distinguish between the form and the content of law. I conclude by discussing the consequences of my view for the secularist interpretation of Hobbes and for the Taylor–Warrender theses. I shall begin by presenting part of the textual basis for my view.
THE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
To a large extent the purpose of this chapter is to prove that Hobbes almost always means what he says about the laws of nature, namely, that the laws of nature are literally laws; more precisely, they are moral laws in the same way in which they are divine laws. Hobbes says or implies as much in each of the following quotations:
“[W]e are to consider next, what are the Divine Laws, or dictates of natural reasons; … the same laws of nature, of which I have spoken already in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of this treatise; namely, equity, justice, mercy, humility, and the rest of the moral virtues” (EW, 3:348).
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- Information
- The Two Gods of LeviathanThomas Hobbes on Religion and Politics, pp. 100 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992