Transcript Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau - Central Web Server 2

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau
ECON 205W
Summer 2006
Prof. Cunningham
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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
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Personal Background
Most Important Writings:
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The Elements of Law (1640)
De Cive (The Citizen, 1642)
Leviathan (1651)
Overall Objectives:
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To put moral and political philosophy on a
scientific basis
Contribute to the stability, peace, and welfare
of mankind
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Approach
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Felt that earlier thinkers (excluding Machiavelli
and certain others) had failed because they
attempted to base their theories of society on
mankind’s highest aspirations.
Created a code of natural law as morally binding
and determining the purpose of society.
Separated his notion of natural law from human
perfection.
Develops a psychology of human passions or
interests.
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Approach (2)
Believed he had uncovered the basis
of human behavior and human
nature. Used these as assumptions
to build his theory.
 Believes people have competing
interests, and this has implications.
 The “State of Nature.”
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Implications
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To prevent chaos, society, though political
and economic organization use the force
and coercion to hold society together.
People ought to be willing to give up the
same rights as they expect others to give
up, and out to be satisfied with just as
much liberty with respect to others as
others have with respect to them.
Agreement to this by the members of
society forms the social contract.
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Social Contract
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The social contract is not between the
citizens and the ruling power.
It is a contract citizens make with each
other to accept the rule of central
authority.
The minority accepts the majority
decision.
A society so united forms a single body,
a commonwealth, a leviathan.
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Social Contract (2)
The ruler is the absolute authority.
 Parts of the social contract process.
 Validity of the contact.
 The contract is binding only if its
purpose is fulfilled—i.e., that the
citizens are secure.
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The Sovereign and Citizens
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Rights of the sovereign:
Enforcement of Law
 Legislative power
 Judicial power
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Sovereign is not subject to the laws.
 Citizens retain certain “inalienable
rights” or “retained rights”
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Entitlement Theory
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Distributive justice.
The guarantee of performance on
contracts is the basis of all justice.
Without respect for (private) property
rights, everyone has a claim on
everything, and chaos reigns.
Justice is not equal outcomes, but
rather equality of process and equality
of opportunity.
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Distributive Justice
In the state of nature, people share
a kind of equality. Inequality is a
product of civil law.
 Regardless, people perceive
themselves as equal, and will enter
into contracts willingly only under
equal terms.
 Doctrines of inequality don’t work.
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Hobbes’ Economic Contributions
Focus on people as they are.
 Predecessor to Theory of Moral
Sentiments (Smith)
 Entitlement theory of justice
 Basic of all justice is enforcement
of property rights
 Social contract with retained rights
 Equality opportunity
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John Locke (1632-1704)
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Background
Basic ideas:
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Rational agent model
Coincidence of self-interest and general
interest
Reacts more to Sir Robert Filmer than to
Hobbes.
Locke’s message:
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All government is limited in its powers and
exists only by the consent of the governed.
All people are born free.
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Great Works
Two Treatises on Government
(1690)
 A Letter Concerning Toleration
(1689)
 Some Considerations of the
Consequences of the Lowering of
Interest and Raising the Value of
Money (1691)
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Two Treatises on Gov’t
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Begins with the questions:
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“What is political power?
What is the appropriate end and objective of
civil government?
Answers:
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Political power is the right to make laws,
enforcing them at penalty of death.
Establishment of penalties related to
regulating and preserving property and
defending the commonwealth from foreign
attack, all for the public good.
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The State of Nature
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Contrast with Hobbes’ view.
The state of nature is a state of perfect
freedom and equality.
The world was never without political or
social structure. Political and social
structure arise naturally with humankind.
People “… living together according to
reason, without a common superior on
earth with authority to judge between
them, is properly the state of nature.”
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The State of War
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It is the use of force without right.
In peace, there is no use of force without
right.
Allows that there are “inconveniences” in
the state of nature in which people may
need to be judges in their own case. It
such situations, the state of nature may
be indistinguishable from the state of war.
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Self-Preservation
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Everyone should pursue their own
preservation, but is also obligated to
pursue the preservation of the rest of
humankind.
What if these duties conflict?
Aggression against others if a violation
of the law of nature.
A course of conduct that tends toward
self-preservation is in accord with
nature, which is the law of nature.
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Locke on Property
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Natural distribution
Theory of private property rights
Begins with the assertion that every person
owns themselves and their labor. This is the
foundation of all other property.
Property acquired through just acquisition,
earned through use of self and labor.
Means of limiting accumulation is only required if
there is less than a superabundance.
Only labor can create property. Transfer does not
create property.
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Locke on Money
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Money arises by mutual consent.
It is a social institution that arises our of
mutual trust.
Money arose and hastened the end of the
common.
Money encourages people to produce a
surplus.
Money is an ability to accumulate, leading
to an inequality of wealth. People accept
this because it is in the common interest.
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The Economic Problem
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Nature is powerless to provide for its own
main intention—the increase of mankind.
Nature cannot extend its own limits.
(Problem of scarcity?)
People can make increase possible,
solving the economic problem.
The continuation of the natural state is
impossible. Growth is necessary.
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Political Power
Must be limited.
 Majority rule.
 Separation of Powers.
 There is no freedom where there is
no law.
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Key Contributions to Economics
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Rational agent.
In the long run, self-interest and general interest
coincide. People are basically good, but selfinterested.
Ideal structure for society is to preserve
property rights and let self-interest reign.
Entitlement theory of distributive justice. Equal
treatment and process.
Focus on growth.
Political power should be limited, but freedom
and economic progress require law.
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Jean Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778)
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Concerned with the relationship of the
state and the individual.
Believes that society is based upon
some implicit contract.
The contract delivers us from some
“prior state of nature”.
The contract implies that the ruler is the
people’s agent, not their master.
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Life and Work
Rousseau’s life.
 Confessions (1784)
 Emile (1762)
 The Social Contract (1762)
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Rousseau’s View of Human Nature
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Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the
Inequality of Mankind
Civilization brought inequality and other evils.
People have a sense of freedom, a faculty for
self-improvement, a natural feeling of
compassion and self-love.
The key social bond has been the development
of private property.
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“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground
bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine’, and found
people simple enough to believe him, was the real
founder of civil society.”
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Human Nature (2)
Private property is the source of all
evil.
 Establishment of the institution of
private property lead to the
establishment of society,
government, and law.
 The only solution is to abandon
private property.
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Rousseau’s “State of Nature”
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Before people lived in societies, their activities
were largely dominated by unreflective pursuits
of their own individual welfare.
The principle concern of people was selfpreservation.
There were no rights or moral relations to be
respected.
Cooperation was impossible.
In this environment, it is impossible for human
character to develop, and people to rise above
their base instincts.
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Rousseau’s Social Contract
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“Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains.”
The contract liberates people from the rude state of
nature.
Socialistic view of the relationship between the individual
and society.
The contract does not change people or their rights, but
rather it offers guarantees.
It guarantees “individualism” by prohibiting excessive
individualism or self-interest.
To Hobbes and Locke, political institutions are a
necessary evil; to Rousseau they are a blessing.
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Social Contract (2)
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People empower the state by their contract
with the ruler.
The citizens give the state (and society)
complete control over themselves and their
(individual) possessions.
People give up independent interest by giving
up authority to the state to enforce the
collective interest of society.
If the ruler or laws act other than in the
interests of the whole of society, then the
contract becomes void.
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Social Contract (3)
Society, through the social
contract, reshapes (changes) the
individual.
 It is not necessary that choices be
made by a vote. Majority rule is
not necessary. Leaders can act in
the general interest without
consulting the citizenry.
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