Hobbes on why the state of nature is a state of war

Question 1

hobbes’ argument

Answer 1

• If people lived together without any state or government authority, then they would exist in a “state of war”
• The only way out of this would be for people to form a social contract whereby each gives up their right to decide all things for themselves and invests it in a common sovereign political power with absolute authority to make and enforce law
  Since such a life would be far better than any life without such a sovereign power, it is rational for people to form this social contract and live in a commonwealth

Question 2

hobbes on the “state of nature”

Answer 2

• His social contract theory is motivated by a thought experiment
• He asks how beings with our kinds of minds and bodies would relate to one another in a “state of nature”, a condition of life outside of “civil society”
• Believes that the state of nature is a kind of moral blank
  There is no morality or justice

Question 3

game theory in the state of nature

Answer 3

• Using the “prisoner’s dilemma” from game theory to model Hobbes’ reasoning regarding the state of nature as a state of war
• Illustrates that what is always individually rational for each party is to attack no matter what the other party does
• But if both red and blue do this, then they end up in the worst situation

Question 4

why aren’t we always in a state of nature?

Answer 4

• “the fool”
  If humans are the way Hobbes says they are, then how could it not be rational to break one’s promises if one can get away with it?
• Hobbes’ response
  Think twice. You never know how your actions might turn out
  Suggests that Hobbes thinks people in the state of nature are best understood in terms of an iterated prisoner’s dilemma.

Question 5

game theory under a sovereign

Answer 5

• Assurance
  Cooperation makes sense, Hobbes says, only if there is a “common power to keep them all in awe”

Question 6

hobbes on how to escape the state of nature

Answer 6

That we must seek peace and that the best way of achieving this peace is by contracting with our fellows to renounce our right to decide everything for ourselves and invest it in a common “overawing” sovereign power

Question 7

worries on hobbes’ view

Answer 7

• Social contracts as historical or merely hypothetical?
  If historical:
• How do we know they ever happened? And why are we now bound by them?
  If merely hypothetical:
• How could claims about what we would consent to (even if true) be binding on us as we actually are?