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Copyright by Kody Wayne Cooper 2014 Copyright by Kody Wayne Cooper 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Kody Wayne Cooper Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Upon the Earth There Is Not Its Like…? Thomas Hobbes’s Natural Law Theory of Morality and Politics Committee: J. Budziszewski, Supervisor A.P. Martinich, Co-Supervisor Robert Koons John Hittinger Devin Stauffer Upon the Earth There Is Not Its Like…? Thomas Hobbes’s Natural Law Theory of Morality and Politics by Kody Wayne Cooper, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2014 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my loving family—particularly my wife, children and parents—whose unfailing support was essential to its completion. My especial thanks goes to my wife, whose constant love and sacrifice for my children and me was nothing short of heroic. Upon the Earth There Is Not Its Like…? Thomas Hobbes’s Natural Law Theory of Morality and Politics Kody Wayne Cooper, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisors: J. Budziszewski and A.P. Martinich Thomas Hobbes insisted that he had set forth the “true and only moral philosophy” and that he was the founder of civil science. Yet, the character of Hobbes’s moral and political theory and its role in his civil doctrines has been the subject of much controversy. In this dissertation I defend an interpretation as a properly natural law theorist in his accounts of the foundations of moral philosophy and civil science, morality, commonwealth, and positive law. I juxtapose Hobbes’s thought to the Aristotelian-Thomistic natural law tradition and argue that Hobbes’s novelty flows chiefly from his doctrine of the human good. v Table of Contents List of Figures........................................................................................................ ix Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Reason, Desire, and the Foundations of Hobbes’s Moral and Political Philosophy ....................................................................................................16 1.1 The Foundations of Hobbesian Moral and Civil Science .......................19 The First Political Liberal? ..................................................................20 Lloyd’s Interpretation of Hobbesian Civil Science as Freestanding ...23 1.2 Human Nature as Existing and Knowable..............................................31 Rereading Hobbes on Severability ......................................................31 Introspecting on the Passions...............................................................38 1.3 The Two Postulates of Human Nature....................................................46 Strauss’s Interpretation of the Two Postulates ....................................47 A Critique of Strauss............................................................................52 1.4 Reason and Desire After the Fall of Man: The Biblical Ground for the Two Postulates .............................................................................................62 Conclusion ....................................................................................................70 Chapter 2: Rival Interpretations of the Laws of Nature: An Assessment and Critique ......................................................................................................................75 2.1 Non-Legal Interpretations.......................................................................77 Kavka’s Rule Egoist Interpretation......................................................77 Hampton’s Hypothetical Imperatives ..................................................80 Gauthier’s Prescriptions.......................................................................84 Bramhall’s Non-Legal Interpretation and Hobbes’s Reply .................86 Gert’s Rationally Required End Interpretation....................................92 2.2 Legal Interpretations ...............................................................................94 The Taylor/Warrender Thesis and Martinich’s Divine Command Interpretation...............................................................................94 2.3 S.A. Lloyd’s Reciprocity Theorem Interpretation ..................................96 vi Conclusion ..................................................................................................102 Chapter 3: Hobbes’s Natural Law Theory of Morality.......................................103 3.1 The Good of Life ..................................................................................104 3.2 The Legal Character of the Laws of Nature .........................................116 God’s Power and Goodness: The Problem of Evil ...........................127 3.3 Reconsidering Transcendent Interests, the Twentieth Law of Nature, and Suicide ...............................................................................................129 Conclusion ..................................................................................................138 Chapter 4: The Essence of Leviathan: Hobbes’s Common Good Theory of Commonwealth...........................................................................................140 4.1 The Fitness of the “Great Multitude” to Incorporate: Is Man a Social and Political Animal “by Nature”?...........................................................144 4.2 Covenanting and Artifacting the Commonwealth for the Common Good155 The End of Covenant as The Common Good of Peace .....................156 That ‘he may use the strength and means of them all, as he shall think expedient’: Hobbes’s Unitarist Conception of Commonwealth165 Man as Maker: How Political Art Imitates Nature ...........................171 Conclusion ..................................................................................................181 Chapter 5: The Person of the Commonwealth: One Truly Representative Artificial Person..........................................................................................................183 5.1 Distinguishing Between Persons Natural, Feigned, and Artificial .......184 5.2 One Truly Representative Artificial Person..........................................189 Conclusion ..................................................................................................205 Chapter 6: Hobbes’s Natural Law Account of Civil Law ..................................206 6.1 The Positivist Tradition ........................................................................209 6.2 Morally Valid Civil Law.......................................................................212 6.3 Authorization, Mutual Containment, and the Sovereign Command ....215 Inalienable Rights and Unlimited Sovereignty..................................219 The Mutual Containment Thesis and the Sovereign Right of Judgment227 Conclusion ..................................................................................................237 vii Conclusion ...........................................................................................................239 Bibliography ........................................................................................................241 viii List of Figures Figure 1: “The Sovereign Representeth Two Persons” ......................................204 ix Introduction Thomas Hobbes famously referred to his doctrine of the laws of nature as “the true and only moral philosophy.”1 Most readers of Hobbes agree that Hobbes intended them to be understood as the firmest basis on which to secure peace. Moreover, they agree that they are at the heart of Hobbes’s moral and political theory. And yet, beyond these points of agreement, Hobbes’s natural law doctrine has been the most controversial and debated feature of Hobbes’s thought. Besides its intrinsic interest, the outcome of the debate over Hobbes’s natural law theory has important implications for a few reasons. First, Hobbes is widely thought to play some sort of foundational role in formulating principles and arguments of enduring interest for moral and political theory, including basic liberty and equality, the right and the good, natural and positive law, sovereignty and the state, and the like. Second, inasmuch as Hobbes formulated principles that influenced the order of contemporary Western liberal democracy, Hobbes’s importance is manifest in properly understanding ourselves. Assuming Hobbes did play an important role in founding the modern world, we would fail to understand ourselves properly if we failed to understand the true character of his natural law theory. Third, most readers of Hobbes agree that Hobbes holds forth his theory as true for all time. As Hobbes put it, “the true doctrine of the laws of nature, is the true moral philosophy” and they are “immutable and eternal.” Hence, they are apparently held forth as a challenge to any rival account of true moral and political philosophy. Yet, the debate over Hobbes’s natural law teaching suggests that their immutable and eternal truth is not immediately 1 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan with selected variants from the Latin edition of 1688, ed. Edwin Curley (Hackett: 1994), 15.40, 100. Citations to Leviathan (hereinafter, L) are to chapter, paragraph, and page number in this edition unless otherwise noted. 1 transparent. This dissertation
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