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UNCIVIL STATES PRODUCE WAR
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- SELF DEFENSE IS A LAW OF NATURE
- RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE VIOLATES THE LAW OF CIVIL SOCIETY
UNCIVIL STATES PRODUCE WAR1. WAR EXISTS IN UNCIVIL STATES Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, LEVIATHAN, 1991, p. 88-9. Hereby, it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre; as is of every man, against every man. For Warre, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battell is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre; as it is in the nature of Weather. For as the nature of Foule weather, lyeth not in a showre or two of rain; but in an inclination thereto of many dayes together: So the nature of War, consisteth not in actuali fighting, but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is Peace. 2. WAR DESTROYS EVERYTHING IN SOCIETY Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, LEVIATHAN, 1991, p. 89. Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.
Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, LEVIATHAN, 1991, p. 90. To this warre of every man against every man, this also is consequent, that nothing can be Unjust. The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no place. Where there is no common Power, there is no Law: where no Law, no Injustice. Force, and Fraude, are in warre the two Caridnall vertues. Justice, and Injustice are none of the Faculties neither of the Body, nor Mind. SELF DEFENSE IS A LAW OF NATURE1. THE FIRST FOUNDATION OF NATURAL RIGHTS IS SELF DEFENSE Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, DE CIVE, 1982, p. 47. It is therefore neither absurd, nor reprehensible; neigher against the dictates of true reason for a man to use all his endeavours to preserve and defend his Body, and the Members thereof from death and sorrowes; but that which is not contrary to right reason, that all men account to be done justly, and with right; Neither by the word Right is any thing else signified, then that liberty which every man bath to make use of his naturall faculties according to right reason: Therefore the first foundation of naturall Right is this, That every man as much as in him lies endeavour to protect his life and members. 2. SELF DEFENSE IS A LAW OF NATURE Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, LEVIATHAN, 1991, p. 92 From this Fundamentall Law of Nature, by which men are commanded to endeavour Peace, is derived this second Law; That a man be willing, when others are so too, asfarre-forth, as for Peace, and defence of himselfe he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against him.selfe. For as long every man holdetb this Right, of doing any thing he liketh; so long are all men in the condition of Warre. But if other men will not lay down their Right, as well as he; then there is no Reason for any one, to devest himselfe of this: For that were to expose himselfe to Prey, (which no man is bound to) rather than to dispose himselfe to Peace. 3. SELF DEFENSE IS A JUSTIFIED LAW OF NATURE Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher, DE CIVE, 1982, p. 47. But because it is in vaine for a man to have a Right to the end, if the Right to the necessary meanes be deny’d him; it followes; that since every man hath a Right to preserve himself, he must also be allowed a Right to use all the means, and do all the actions, without which he cannot preserve himself.
1. HOBBES CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR THEORY OF SELF DEFENSE AS NATURAL LAW RE. Ewin, NQA, VIRTUES AND RIGHTS THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS HOBBES, 1991, p. 195. Hobbes cannot adequately account for a natural right to self-defense within his system. It is the natural right to self-defense, along with things that must accompany that right, that lies at the base of the radical form of our natural condition: In that condition one has the natural right to defend oneself, and, crucially, one is one’s own judge with respect to the exercise of that right. 2. RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE RESULTS IN CONFLICT R.E. Ewin, NQA, VIRTUES AND RIGHTS THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS HOBBES, 1991, p. 195. One may, therefore, with propriety, act preemptively to defend oneself. The only sin in that condition (no crime exists there) is to act in a way that the agent thinks is in contravention of the laws of nature, so there is no action that can be objectively ruled out as prohibited. What is prohibited depends solely on the views of the agent, over which the rest of us have no authority. Hence the natural right to defend oneself becomes, practically, a right to all things, and if all men have a right to all things, conflict follows.
R.E. Ewin, NQA, VIRTUES AND RIGHTS THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS HOBBES, 1991, p. 195-6. One cannot, in any significant sense, retain the right to self-defense if one has given up one’s right to be one’s own judge with respect to its exercise, as Hobbes clearly recognized. One retained one’s right to self-defense when threatened by the sovereign (even if one was threatened by the sovereign as a punitive response to one’s own reprehensible behavior), and one was not expected to leave to the sovereign the judgment of what one could do in defending oneself against the sovereign. That one is one’s own judge of what is necessary to one’s preservation in the natural condition is what turns the right to defend oneself into a right to all things; if one must still be one’s own judge of what is necessary to one’s preservation in civil society, then the right to defend oneself will become, in practice, a right to all things.
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