Transcript Document

Hobbes’s Leviathan
Mark Bedau
Hum 210
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outline
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metaphysics &
epistemology
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materialism
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consciousness
freedom
ethics & politics
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human nature
society
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metaphysics
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what kinds of things exist?
what is their nature?
 what explains their behavior?
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nutritive
reproductive
motive
sensitive
intellectual
consciousness
sensation
emotion
desire
motion
reproduction
growth
consciousness
sensation
emotion
desire
motion
reproduction
growth
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materialism
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monism: everything is material
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God: “a most pure, simple, indivisible, spirit corporeal”
micro-mechanical universe
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corpuscular picture
interaction of parts explains behavior of whole
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Galileo, Descartes, etc.
Hobbes extends corpuscularism
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mind and action
morality and politics
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epistemology: empiricism
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knowledge comes only via senses
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cp. rationalism of Descartes
Hobbes: senses detect only
material objects
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view world materialistically
cp. empiricism of Machiavelli
cp. empiricism of Montaigne
apply reason to careful definitions
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loved geometry
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evidence?
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pro
empiricist theory of experience
 micro-mechanical science
 alternatives are mysterious
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con
conscious experience
 freedom
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consciousness
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the qualitative aspects of experience
“qualia”
 hurtfulness of pains, itchiness of mosquito
bites, taste of lemon, smell of skunk, …
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how does Hobbes explain sensory
experience?
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Hobbes on sensation
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corpuscular, ballistic explanation
experience = motion of bits of matter
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purely mechanical definition of conscious states
ditto for rest of mental lives
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imagination, dreaming, trains of thought, …
like Descartes w/o pineal gland
like contemporary view
brilliant materialistic move!
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“The cause of sense is the external body…
which presseth the organ proper to each
sense…; which pressure by mediation of the
nerves … continued inward to the brain and
heart, causeth there a resistance, … or
endeavor of the heart to deliver itself, which
endeavor, because outward, seemeth to be
some matter without. And this seeming … is that
which men call sense, and consisteth, as to the
eye, in a light, or color figured; to the ear, in a
sound;… Neither in us that are pressed, are
[such sensible qualities] anything else but divers
motions; for motions produceth nothing but
motion.” (i, 4)
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challenge: zombies
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zombies = physically identical but unconscious
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behavior: talks of dreams, cries in pain, acts “freely”
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not Hollywood zombies
inside: no conscious experience
zombies are logically possible
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not claiming zombies exist
if Hobbes were right, zombies would be impossible
so materialism seems false
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Q - any plausible materialist response?
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materialism and freedom
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materialism
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all bodies subject only to physical forces
second problem
we think we have free will
 free will seems impossible for materialism
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puzzled Greeks, Romans, Scholastics
 Renaissance: dignity, fortune, predestination
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problem of prior causes
prior
material
conditions
beliefs &
desires
behavior
this causal picture undermines freedom
 Action is free only if causes within control of the agent
 Ultimate causes are outside the agent’s control
 So, no action is free.
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Hobbes’s solution
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a pseudo-problem
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false presupposition: freedom opposed to causation
truth: freedom is a kind of causation
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“Liberty and necessity are consistent: … [the actions which
men do voluntarily] proceed from their will, proceed from
liberty; and yet, because every act of man’s will, and every
desire, and inclination proceedeth from some cause, and that
from another cause, in a continual chain, whose first link is in
the hand of God the first of all causes, proceed from
necessity.” (xxi, 4)
brilliant move!
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compatibilism
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freedom vs. unfreedom
prior
material
conditions
beliefs,
desires,
will
behavior
external causes
 internal vs. external causes
 free actions result from deliberation (tussle between desires)
“In deliberation, the last appetite or aversion immediately adhering
to the action, or the omission thereof, is that we call the will…
For a voluntary act is that which proceedeth from the will, and no
other” (vi)
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challenge for compatibilism
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lots of counterexamples: unfree behavior caused
by internal desires, not by external factors
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brainwashing
compulsion
kleptomania
diagnosis: the wrong kind of desires
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Hobbes’s mistake: key not internal vs. external
causes
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Q - any materialist solution?
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interim summary
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2 challenges to corpuscular metaphysics
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next: what about corpuscular ethics?
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society = aggregation of people
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explains formation of society, morality, property,
laws …
what is human nature outside society?
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three views of human nature
society is natural,
people are essentially
social
society is artificial,
naturally good
people are corrupted
by society
society is artificial,
naturally selfish
people are controlled
by society
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Hobbes’s state of nature
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“… during that time men live without a common power to
keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is
called war, and such a war as is of every man against
every man.” (xiii, 8)
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rough equality of abilities
conflicting desires
actual fighting or threat of fighting
none of the benefits of society
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chaos, insecurity, trauma
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“In such a condition there is no place for
industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain,
and consequently, no culture of the earth, no
navigation, nor use of commodities that may be
imparted by sea, no commodious building, no
instruments for moving and removing such
things as require much force, no knowledge of
the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts,
no letters, no society, and which is worst of all,
continual fear and danger of violent death, and
the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short.” (xiii, 9)
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no morality, no property
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“To this war of every man against every man,
this also is consequent: that nothing can be
unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice
and injustice, have there no place…. It is
consequent also … that there be no propriety, no
dominion, no mine and thine distinct, but only
that to be every man’s that he can get, and for
so long as he can keep it.” (xiii, 13)
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morality and property are unnatural
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artificial creation of collective human activity
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create morality (xxiv)
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Right of nature
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the right to protect your life
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Law of nature
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better phrase: “rational rule of self-interest”
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Q - what is a “right” if there is no morality?
moral virtues
a pattern of behavior that protects your life
First law of nature
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you should seek peace,
seek to avoid the state of nature
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how create peace?
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rational self-interest causes state of nature
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human nature
analogy: prisoner’s dilemma
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insufficient evidence to convict
convict on lesser charge
if both confess, moderate sentences
if one confesses and implicates partner, he gets light
sentence and partner gets harsh sentence
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prisoner’s dilemma
prisoner A
keep quiet
keep quiet
confess
3 yrs
3 yrs
1 yr
20 yrs
prisoner B
20 yrs
confess
1 yr
10 yrs
10 yrs
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prisoner’s dilemma
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dilemma for rational self-interest
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multiple person dilemma
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tragedy of the commons
common grazing land
 rational self-interest: cheat if you can
 then everyone suffers
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solution
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everyone agrees to cooperate
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2nd law of nature
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you should give up your natural rights to the
extent that everyone else also does
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more laws of nature (xv)
rational rules of self-interest = theorems of morality
keep your promises
4.
reciprocate gifts and kindnesses
5.
be accommodating
6.
pardon people
7.
seek rehabilitation, not revenge
8.
… be friendly
19. settle factual disputes by impartial witnesses
3.
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Q - any left out? any not belong?
Q - method sound?
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how to stop cheaters?
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create mechanism to ensure compliance
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create a sovereign
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“The only way to erect such a common power …
is to confer all their power and strength upon
one man, or upon an assembly of men, that may
reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto
one will, … which is as much as to say, to
appoint one man or assembly of men to bear
their person, and every one to own and
acknowledge himself to be author of whatsoever
he that so beareth their person shall act, … and
therein to submit their wills, every one to his will,
and their judgments, to his judgment.” (xvii,13)
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corpuscular Leviathan
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the sovereign derives
authority from the
people
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individuals exist before
sovereign
individuals create
sovereign to curb
human nature
individuals identify with
sovereign
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sources of moral authority
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God
social contract
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reason & consent of governed & human nature
Hobbes: one morality
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Cp. Machiavelli: individual morality ≠ civic morality
Q - Why Hobbes and Machiavelli differ on this?
next century: utilitarianism
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reason & overall good of everyone
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corpuscular consequences
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origin of property
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no right of rebellion
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“The distribution of materials … is the constitution of
mine, and thine … and belongeth … to the sovereign
power” (xxiv, 5)
the sovereign forms no covenant with subjects (xviii,
4)
no unjust laws
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“The law is made by the sovereign power, and all that
is done by such law is warranted and owned by every
one of the people.” (xxx, 20)
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conclusions
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materialism
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problems:
solutions:
freedom
compatibilism
social contract
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artificial, rational (moral science)
basis: selfish human nuture
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consciousness
TBA
polarity: Hobbes vs. Rousseau
Hobbes’s outlook is substantially ours
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we inherit his problems
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