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Submitted by tanya18 on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: History Other
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HIST OF POLI PHIL/ 2nd ed.
Human behavior, according to Hobbes, is to be understood primarily in terms of a mechanistic psychology of the passions (vi), those forces in man, which, so to speak, push him from behind; it is not to be understood in terms of those things which could be thought of as attracting man from in front, the ends of man, or what for Hobbes would be the objects of the passions. The objects of the passions, Hobbes says, vary with each man's constitution and education and are too easy to disguise. Furthermore, good and evil, the words with which men characterize the objects of their desires and aversions, are strictly relative to th man using the words, "there being nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common Rule of Good and Evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselvesÂ…." What men really mean when they say something is good is that it pleases them. Yet is is true that as the passions issue actions, men are guided by their imaginations and their opinions of what is good and evil; but the thoughts do not control the passions; on the contrary, "for the Thoughts are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the Things Desired." (vi)
What would the condition of mankind be if there were no civil society? How would men be related to each other? First of all, Hobbes argues, men are much more equal both in faculties of body and mind than has hitherto been recognized. The most important equality is the equal ability all man have to kill each other. This is most important because the most important concern of men is their own self-preservation. Self-preservation, in turn, is most important because fear, the fear of violent death, is the most powerful passion. Equality of ability leads to equality of hopes and to competition among men, among all who desire the same things. This natural enmity is intensified by the diffidence, or distrust, men without government have for each other...
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