Hobbes / Hobbes - Tutorial Preparation Sheet

L ecture 7 – Hobbes

1. Background questions:

1. What is the State of Nature?

Why does Hobbes talk about it?

2. What are the 3 causes of conflict in the State of Nature and how do they cause trouble?

3. What are the ‘Natural Laws’ that he thinks we all obey?

4. How do these ‘Natural Laws’ give us hope that we can get out of the State of Nature?

5. What is the role of the Sovereign in Hobbes’ plan of escape?

2. Tutorial discussion questions:

6. In Hobbes’s opinion, what is morality for and what does it do? Where does morality come from? Do you think he’s right? Why/why not? Does Hobbes think Morality is good in itself?

7. Hobbes describes the State of Nature as a ‘War of all against all’ and the life of Man in it ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ Why does he think so? Do you agree that without a sovereign things would be as bad as Hobbes says?

8. Give an example – not from the lecture notes – of a ‘tragedy of the commons’ situation.

9. What does Hobbes say about rebelling against the sovereign? What is your opinion about this? Consider recent events in the Middle East.