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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
The third Law of Nature is that everyone must perform whatever covenants they enter into. Where there is no covenant and no one has transferred any rights, everyone has the same rights; thus, no action can ever be considered unjust. An injustice can only result when a covenant is made and broken. For a covenant to be honored, there must be some central power that compels people to perform said covenant, and the fear of punishment must be greater than the perceived reward for breaking the covenant. Therefore, if there is no common-wealth and no sovereign power, nothing is unjust.
Hobbes does not mean to imply that people in nature do not mingle or enter into covenants and agreements. On the contrary, he suggests that they do, but they simply don’t honor their contracts without a central power to keep them honest. As definitions of good or bad can’t exist without a central power to deem them so through laws, the violence that occurs in nature cannot be considered unjust.
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It is impossible to deny that covenants are made and broken all the time, and such violations are an injustice; however, “Succesfull wickednesse hath obtained the name of Vertue,” Hobbes says, especially when it is in favor of a kingdom. Obtaining a kingdom by rebellion is a violation of reason, as it is a Law of Nature never to do anything that is destructive to one’s life.
Hobbes also does not mean to imply that covenants are always honored in common-wealths. Hobbes’s comment about “successful wickedness” being considered a virtue harkens to England’s political unrest in his day. The parliamentarians were winning the English Civil War by rebelling against Charles I and the royalists. Hobbes considers rebellion a violation of the Laws of Nature because a rebellion is an attack on a sovereign power—the same power in which the people of a common-wealth endowed their own rights to self-preservation. Thus, rebelling against one’s sovereign power with the intention of killing that sovereign is in effect killing one’s self.
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The fourth Law of Nature states that one must have gratitude when receiving benefit from another, and the fifth law states one must endeavor to accommodate all of humankind. Those who accommodate others are said to be “sociable,” and those who refuse are “Stubborn” or “Intractable.” The sixth Law of Nature is that one must pardon those who repent after an offense, and the seventh law is that revenge should be about the greater good and not the evil of the deed to be punished. Revenge should never be cruel, which violates the Law of Nature.
Revenge that is cruel is against the Laws of Nature because the very same laws maintain that people must always be working toward peace and the greater good. Cruel revenge is neither peaceful nor in the collective interest, which is why cruelty is a violation of the Laws of Nature. Hobbes’s use of the word “sociable” reinforces his opinion that people in nature are not naturally social and agreeable, but instead are “stubborn” and “intractable.” The Laws of Nature maintain that people must be agreeable, but since there is no central power in nature, these laws cannot be enforced.
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The eighth Law of Nature is that one should never declare contempt for another by deed or word, and the ninth law emphasizes the equality of all people. In Politiques, Aristotle argues that some people are more worthy than others. For example, wise people, like philosophers, are more worthy than servants who do not make a living from their wit. Hobbes argues that such a belief violates reason, and he further argues that to profess such inequality is evidence of egotism and superiority.
Aristotle’ Politics is an early work of political theory (around 330 BCE), which outlines the politics of ancient Greek society. Hobbes, as usual, does not agree with Aristotle’s breakdown of the social hierarchy. To Hobbes, there is no difference between a servant and a philosopher since, under the very same conditions, passions, and experience, a servant can reach the same conclusions as a philosopher.
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The tenth Law of Nature states that no one person can reserve a right that is not reserved for the rest. Those who observe this law are called “Modest,” and those who do not are called “Arrogant.” The eleventh law states that any judge must acknowledge the equality of people, and the twelfth law ensures that all things that can be divided are so divided and equally distributed. The thirteenth law addresses those things that cannot be reasonably divided, in which case ownership is either granted to whoever is in first possession of the thing, or it is determined “by lot.” The fourteenth law defines “lot” as something arbitrary that is also agreed upon or as something natural, like the natural order of birth.
In Hobbes’s understanding, the possession of a royal crown is decided by “lot,” which is the line of royal succession that is usually followed beginning with the first born child of a sovereign power. Of course, succession also considers whether a child is illegitimate or legitimate, which Hobbes returns to later in the book.
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The fifteenth Law of Nature ensures that all who facilitate peace are allowed to do so safely, and the sixteenth law is that everyone must submit to the judgement of an arbitrator. The seventeenth law states that no one can sit in judgement over their own cause, the eighteenth ensures that all judges are impartial, and the nineteenth law deals with witnesses. It is the Law of Nature that all witnesses to an offense are heard and considered by the arbitrator.
Hobbes returns to the nineteenth Law of Nature later in the book when he argues that the hearing of witnesses ensures innocent people are not punished, since in biblical times it was the witnesses who casted the first stone of punishment.
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There are several Laws of Nature, Hobbes says, but they can be reduced to one simple rule: “Do not that to another, which thou wouldest not have done thy selfe.” These laws are absolute and interminable. Injustice in its many forms can never be lawful, and “it can never be that Warre (war) shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.” The science of these laws and the study of what is good and evil in civil society is the only true “Moral Philosophy.”
Hobbes implies here that his own philosophy, which studies the good and evil in civil society, is the only true “Moral Philosophy.” In this vein, all other philosophies, except those Hobbes specifically mentions (like mathematics and geometry), are actually dangerous to a common-wealth and threaten the balance of power and peace. Hobbes’s quote here again points to the English Civil War, which many felt was necessary for peace. Hobbes disagrees and claims war can never be consistent with peace.
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