Thomas Hobbes' State of Law and Nature Paper Example

Thomas Hobbes's philosophy which describes man's state of nature as being characterized by war and violence, making man to exhibit almost similar characteristics as animals, is questionable. It is impossible to perceive humanity as a society existing with no culture and civilization. However, on his views about politics, it is true that politics and authority are categorized as artificial and in their natural state, humanity lack government. This makes it possible for each society to come up with its working political system as per its needs. This essay is going to explore Hobbes' philosophy of the state of law and nature, mainly considering his views on freedom of human beings, how he differs with St. Augustine of Hippo's perspective of free will and finally his take on justice and the role it plays in shaping nature.

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According to Hobbes (Bobbio, 149), human beings need to use their freedom to nurture their self in the world. He believes that people have been accorded liberty to help them to prosper in the society they live in and add meaning to their individual lives. Hobbes defines liberty as the absence of external obstacles which interferes with human beings' freedom to do what they desire or choose the paths that they wish to follow. He observes that freedom must be consistent and should be physical. He also argues that in their nature, human beings are vulnerable and can go astray in an attempt to explore and understand the world around them. They rely on fragile reasoning capacity which leads to actions influenced by impulsive motives or ignorance. He displays the natural condition of humanity as one that is in a state of violence, threats, and insecurity creating a society where individuals are in opposition with each other. Hobbes believes that the condition of human being is a situation of war of everyone against each other because human beings are trying to exercise their freedom. According to Hobbes' views (Hobbes 106), human beings are not selfish but, unreliable making it difficult to make rational decisions about things which serve their interests. He adds that it is common to find human beings involving themselves in activities that go against their self-interest. For instance, people will set themselves to war in the name of fighting for their own country and meet their deaths in the course of the war or someone cutting their noses to have appealing looks. He notes that human beings are more concerned with what others think of them rather than their well-being. In his argument on the state of nature of mankind (Hobbes, 116) Hobbes concludes that liberty is not safe as it is not reasonable to allow the freedom where human beings start fighting their fellow humans because it will result to a chaotic world characterized by fear and death.

To enhance man's security in a free society, Hobbes suggests the establishment of a political authority which acts as an artificial person that helps human beings to make decisions and rules to enhance co-existence. The law of nature calls upon men to embrace peace to promote individual liberty of the world around them. Human beings need to forgo much of their liberty in their pursuit to have a peaceful world (Skinner, 172). By allowing the creation of a sovereign government (Watkins, 110) human beings strip themselves of their freedom and chain oneself to the rule of law that governs most of their decisions and actions. The outcome of the law is a prospering society where human beings peacefully coexist with each other and work together to better themselves without the fear of threats of war and death. In spite of this argument, Hobbes adds that man cannot perform actions that will destroy his life. He emphasizes on the law on nature which prohibits man from doing anything destructive to his own life.

On their argument about free will, Hobbes and St. Augustine share similar sentiments because their arguments recognize the freedom to be embodied in the movement to express oneself. However, according to Hobbes, the body is the only thing that one can regard as being free because human actions and decisions have to be in line with the law hence, there is no free will. In his argument, St. Augustine views free will as a God-given gift to humanity to enable them to perform good deeds in the world, creating a balance between good and evil. Augustine believes that free will is responsible for the actions and paths that human beings choose to take in their daily lives. He also adds that it is not possible to regard human beings as good or bad because their actions can invoke good or wrong deeds at a given time. According to Augustine, free will is what makes human beings to do various actions. For instance, human beings cannot freely perform good actions if they lack the free will to do so. While Hobbes argues that one's body is the only free thing, St. Augustine's perspectives (Boyce, 66) acknowledge the existence of freedom of choice of doing good or evil. St. Augustine suggests that even though there may be external limits guiding one's choices, the ability to choose entirely rests on them. Such an argument may explain the reasons why people break laws even when they are aware that it is wrong to do so. The free will to choose individual actions is responsible for every action that human beings perform (Boyce, 94). Therefore, the body is not the only free thing that one has because people have free will too. Hobbes dismisses arguments which suggest the existence of free will because he feels that God has not impeded the free will to human beings the way the sovereign impedes laws on humanity (Watkins, 120). However, in his arguments, he fails to point out why people continue to disobey sovereign authority, which is an artificial person expected to govern their decisions and actions if they lack free will to do so.

Conclusion

According to Hobbes' arguments which put human beings on the pedestal of subduing the state of nature, the body is the only thing which exhibits true liberty. In his argument on the existence of free will and freedom of making choices, St. Augustine disagrees with Hobbes' perspective. Hobbes also explained the laws of nature and how insecure human beings get in the state of nature prompting them to establish an artificial person, the sovereign to enable them to create a peaceful society. The sovereign is responsible for the course of justice in society. Finally, although the sovereign governs people's actions and decisions, St. Augustine's argument on the existence of free will can be said to be responsible for people's choices (Boyce, 114).

Works cited

Bobbio, Noberto. "Hobbes and Natural Law Theory." Thomas Hobbes. Routledge, 2017. 145-168.

Boyce, James. Born bad: Original sin and the making of the Western World. Catapult, 2015.

Hobbes, Thomas. Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Longman Library of Primary Sources in Philosophy). Routledge, 2016.

Skinner, Quentin. "Review Article Hobbes's 'Leviathan'." Thomas Hobbes. Routledge, 2017. 169-182.

Watkins, John WN. "Philosophy and Politics In Hobbes 1." Thomas Hobbes. Routledge, 2017. 107-128.