Page:The ethics of Hobbes (IA ethicsofhobbes00hobb).pdf/34
are nonentities where civil law does not exist. They are the creatures of the State. Where civil government does not exist there is no mine and thine distinct from each other. That is mine which I can acquire and keep against the strength and wit of others.[1]
From such a horrible condition of things as the state of nature presents, men emerge by means of their passions and reason. Men possess certain "passions" which incline them to peace, such as the fear of death, a desire of the things necessary for commodious living, and a hope of attaining them by industry. Men also possess "reason" which dictates the means by which this peace may be secured. Reason dictates certain articles of peace on which men may agree, which articles Hobbes calls "Laws of Nature."[2] Of these laws he mentions twenty or more, only three of which,
- ↑ Leviathan, Pt. I., chap. XIII.; also De Corp. Pol., Pt. I., chap. I.; also Philosophical Rudiments, chap. I.
- ↑ Leviathan, Pt. I., chap. XIII.; also De Corp. Pol., Pt. I., chap. II.; also Philosophical Rudiments, chap. II. The reader will find an interesting chapter, "On the History of the Idea of 'Nature' in Law and Politics" in Professor Ritchie's work on Natural Rights, chap. II. See also Maine's Ancient Law, chaps. III. and IV.; also Woolsey, Political Science, Vol. I., Pt. I., chap. III.; also Salmond, Law Quarterly Review, April, 1895; also Willoughby, The State, chap. V.
live so now," and refers to the savage people in many places in America." Leviathan, Pt. I., chap. XIII. This conception of man as essentially anti-social in his nature is contrary to the conception taken by many historians and anthropologists. Tylor, Anthropology, chap. XVI.; Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 136; Sir Henry Maine, Ancient Law, p. 126; Ratzel, The History of Mankind, trans., Vol. I, § 12, seem to think that the evidence warrants the opposite view. Also McLennan, Primitive Marriage, chap. VIII., 1st ed., who holds the tribe rather than the family to be the original "social unit," says: "All the evidence we have goes to show that men were from the beginning gregarious." He says: "The geological record exhibits them in groups," and that "this testimony is confirmed by all history. We hear nothing in the most ancient times of individuals except as being members of groups." If this be so, it indicates the essential sociality of man. This testimony is confirmed also by psychology. A true psychological analysis reveals social feelings which are constitutional with man. Such critics of Hobbes as Cumberland, Shaftesbury, and Butler specially emphasized this point in their opposition to him.