Page:The ethics of Hobbes (IA ethicsofhobbes00hobb).pdf/31
study of the ethical theory of Hobbes, we are more especially concerned with the second and third parts of his philosophical system, which parts are very intimately related, and for a good understanding of which a knowledge of the first part is really not necessary. It is in the treatment of the origin and regulation of the State that his ethical theory is developed, and, as has just been stated, the State has its foundation in human nature. It is, therefore, very essential to a full understanding of his ethical theory to be acquainted with his view of human nature.
Hobbes's conception of human nature is thoroughly egoistic. In his psychological analysis he finds naught but self-regarding feelings impelling man's activity. Even those emotions of pity, reverence, love, etc., which seem to be altruistic in their nature, are ultimately explainable from an egoistic point of view, as the following definitions indicate: "Grief, for the calamity of another, is pity; and ariseth from the imagination that the like calamity may befall himself; and therefore is called also compassion, and in the phrase of this present time a fellow-feeling."[1] This is stated still more broadly elsewhere: "Pity is imagination or fiction of future calamity to ourselves, proceeding from the sense of another man's calamity. But when it lighteth on such as we think have not deserved the same, the compassion is greater, because then there appeareth more probability that the same may happen to us: for, the evil that happeneth to an innocent man, may happen to every man."[2] The same self-interest is present in his definition of reverence: "Reverence is the conception we have concerning another, that he hath the power to do unto us both good and hurt, but not the will to do us hurt."[3] Again, in his conception of love we see his thorough-going egoism: "There is yet another passion sometimes called love,