Being Right and Fair for Thomas Hobbes on the Natural Rights - Essay Example

Time: Introduction to Ethics Being Right and Fair For Thomas Hobbes on the Natural Rights The 17th century philosopher, belonging to England, Thomas Hobbes is one the most popular philosopher for his ethical and social theory about the political structure of a community in the form of his book Leviathan. His work in the book Leviathan is actually based upon his social contact theory. Hobbes’s political philosophy head off from a number of premises and all of these premises are self evident in their nature, and can be supported by experiments. In his theory, Hobbes actually provides a convincing system for thoughts. According to the theory, a person’s self-interests and preferences of actions is important because actually they are the basis of the philosophy of that particular person. On the other hand, these self interest and personal preferences are merely based on the perceptions of the people. In other words we can say that these personal opinions may not allow the formation of a community where people live together to support others. People praise Thomas Hobbes that he illustrated the concepts of modern thinking in a better way in his book ‘Leviathan’. Hobbes has defined many of the Greek and Latin terms in English language in this book, just to make a better understanding for the people of Britain. Hobbes has used a very clear and common word of language to signify the importance of the common ideas in a human mind. In this way, he has avoided many of the difficulties and the complexities, which may create a sense of confusion for the people. In addition to this Thomas Hobbes has covered many of the major issues of human life starting from the basic conceptions or the thought patterns of the people, then the actions and reactions based on these perceptions and then the ultimate formation of a community based on the actions and relationships of the people. The basic idea behind all this theme of the book is the mechanistic, which means the movement of objects. Here Hobbes actually used the word of objects for the human beings. According to Hobbes perception, all the actions of human beings are actually the movements of their internal thoughts. In this paper, we will clarify the interpretations of Hobbes social context theory from different perspectives and from different viewpoints or opinions. In this theory, Hobbes put light on the important aspects of life that is human nature and then the human society. Both human nature and the human society are very much interrelated to each other. Interpretation of Hobbes’ Social and Political Theory: Human Beings as Physical Objects: In his philosophical theory, Hobbes considers human beings as the physical objects. He thinks that all the possible functions (thought patterns) and activities can be described in the mechanical terms. Therefore, we can call all the activities of the human beings as the physical operations. Sensation is an important process in the human body, which is incomplete without the involvement of the physical presence of the nervous system. These sensations actually produce ideas in the brains of the people according to their own perceptions (Curran, 68). Similarly, like sensations and the perceptions, Hobbes also describes the actions and the reactions of the people and we can say human nature. Based on the perceptions, specific desires may arise in the human body, therefore these desires may force us to act or react in the particular way (Curran, 69). According to Hobbes theory, all of our actions and reactions are aimed to relive our emotions. Therefore, everything, which we act in front of others, is based on some perceptions in our minds, which is inclined in the past experiences. State of Nature: when people behave according to their own perceptions and believe then it will be called as a state of nature where everyone is independent to act as he want to act. Many of the critics argue that Hobbess state of nature is excessively pessimistic; he constructs it from a number of individual empirical and normative assumptions (Schedler, 168). According to Hobbes perception, people neither are sufficiently analogous in their mental and physical attributes and characteristics that no one is indestructible nor can expect to be able to dominate or rule over the others. We can easily interpret that Hobbes assumes that people generally “shun death”, and that the desire to safeguard their own lives and priorities is very strong in most people (Schedler, 168). While people have local liking, their generosity is limited, and they have a tendency to show biasness or partiality towards some of other human beings. It is important matter that others should agree with the people’s own high opinions of themselves; people are sensitive to slight changes even (Schedler, 168). They make evaluative judgments just based on their own mental perceptions and thought patterns, but often use seemingly impersonal terms like ‘good’ and ‘bad’ to stand for their own personal preferences. They are very much curious about the reason behind the occurrence of events, and nervous about their futures; according to Hobbes, these characteristics persuade people to adopt religious beliefs, although the content or the foundations of those beliefs and thought patterns will differ, depending upon the sort of religious education one has happened to receive (Schedler, 168). Personal Perceptions of Human Beings as the base of their Actions: As Hobbes have described very clearly that every action and reaction of human being is entirely based on his personal perception, therefore we can say that all the human beings are different in their actions and reactions unless someone rules them (Grcic, 386). If we give them open environment to act then everyone will be independent in their opinion. This independency of the people to express their natures may create many conflicts and thus it will be difficult for many of the other people to survive in the society or specifically we can say community. ‘State of the War’ Situation: Another interpretation, which comes from this Hobbes theory, is that we may allow everyone to live like animals. The animals that do not care for any other and thus live just for their own self interest, without considering any one else in the society. This may create a sense of selfishness in the people. Hobbes names this situation as the ‘State of the War’. The Hobbes depiction of the state of the war between the people is really true because the right of every person towards all things in the universe may create a sense of conflicts between the people (Schedler, 168). This situation of the conflicts will be more severe when there is sense of competition between the people. In this condition, people will not bother anything for anyone rather they will try to achieve everything for their own satisfaction. This may also create a situation of scarcity of the most desirable things. This scarcity may even happen to anything either it is most desirable spouse or most desirable piece of agricultural land. Another interpretation of Hobbes’s state of war can be more powerful i.e. the conflicts on the religious point of view and different thought patterns. Moreover, conflicts on moral judgments and decisions of duties and rights, all of these matters will add material for the state of the war between the people (Schedler, 168). Solution to this Situation of being in the ‘State of War’: According to Hobbes’ theory interpretation, there can be only one way to escape from this situation (Grcic, 386). This solution is to be in contract with each other, these contracts are actually the mutual agreements to let down the individual interest and thus promoting the mutual interties of the community or a group of people. In this way, an environment of unity will be created which will definitely support the lives of many of the poor people. This will support the social existence of the human beings, which mean to help others and to live for others, and then self interests will automatically die (Grcic, 386). It seems that Hobbes consider the morality as the right of the people and not the duty. The reason behind this perception of morality as right of human being is that people may consider the duties as the pressure for them. Earlier it was considered that morality towards other is the duty jest because of the natural laws. Nevertheless, Hobbes changed the perception, though the idea remains same that people should take care of others, but now the apparent look of the idea is changed. It is not moral law, duty rather it is a right of every human being to deserve an ethical and moral behaviors from others (Schedler, 168). Setting The Powers of Sovereign Authority: This mutual agreement of supporting the mutual interest is not possible without the authority of any sovereign power. That particular sovereign power will defeinilty guide people in order to live in the interest of even the minorities living in the community. That Sovereign power is none other than the Institutional Body like Government of any state (Labiano, 152). All the decisions made by the sovereign power are in favor of the community as a whole unit and not in the consideration any particular entity. According to Hobbes theory of social contract, the appointment of any single entity and giving him all the authorities and rights to decide about the matters and different issues may reduce the internal conflicts of the people. Therefore, we can say that the social contact theory of Hobbes starts from the perceptions of the people in their own particular way and ends up with the authority of a sovereign power, which works in the direction of mutual interest and forgets the individual concerns (Schedler, 168). The settlement of the sovereign authority will compel people to obey the ruels and laws identified by the power or we can say the authority. Another idea that can be perceived from Hobbes point of view is that the making of the sovereign power is not that much important rather the existence or the effectiveness of the authority is considered well because in this way they can make a society in a better way. Certain Contradictory Situations: Another perception, which may come to our minds, based on Hobbes social contact theory is that he is of the opinion, that it is possible that in some rare cases, the sovereign power will fail to take right decisions, which can make everyone, feel satisfied. This can be possible in the situation when the Government has little authorities or powers, therefore in some cases they cannot take any particular decisions, which is according to the mutual interties (Schedler, 168). This may also happen in the situation that people may start to decide right and wrong based on their own opinion or conscience’s will, this will shorten the power of the sovereign and thus it will not be effective anymore. The Ethical Concerns of Honor: According to the Hobbes working in the book Leviathan, there are three moral and ethical lessons to be remembered. The first lesson is to care about the people by remembering their original names. Second lesson is that all the people as the resident of the society are equally important and able to get their rights. Last lesson is to respect the sovereign power just to respect the mutual interties. All of these lessons actually help any person to live a society where people help others and care for others. Everyone wants to live for the others and thus letting down his personal interties (Schedler, 168). Works Cited Curran, Eleanor, ‘Hobbes’ Theory of Rights – A Modern Interest Theory’, (December 2002), Kent Academic Publishers, 6th Edition, page 63 – 86 Grcic, Joseph, ‘Hobbes and Rawls on Political Power’, (January 2007), Ethics and Politics, 2nd Edition, page 371 – 392 Labiano, Jesus, ‘A Reading of Hobbes’ Leviathan with Economists’ Glasses’, (November 2000), International Journal of Social Economics, 2nd Edition, page 134 - 165 Schedler, Jorge, ‘Hobbes on the Basis of the Political Obligation’, (April, 2007), History of Philosophy, 3rd Edition, Chapter no 4, page 165 - 170 Read More