Thomas Hobbes is best known as author of Leviathan which is usually read today for its theory of political authority. Here Arash Abizadeh discusses Hobbes' ethics, the theory of what we are and what are obligations are to each.
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In Thomas Hobbs Leviathan, published shortly after the English Civil War, Hobbes argues that human life in a state of nature would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
The solution was to consent, to be ruled by an absolute sovereign.
Such a system would be in our self interest.
But that leaves open the question where ethics fits into the picture.
Is there a moral reason to obey the sovereign beyond self preservation?
Are we under any ethical obligations to each other?
Arash Abhizadeh is a canadian philosopher and the author of Hobbes and the Two Faces of Ethics.
Arash Abhizada, welcome to philosophy Bites.
Thank you very much for having me.
The topic we're going to focus on today is Thomas Hobbes ethics.
Before we get onto the ethics, could you just say very briefly who Thomas Hobbes was?
Thomas Hobbes was a 17th century english philosopher.
He was born, actually, at the end of the 16th century, but he lived a very long life.
He's very significant because he was actually one of the first systematic philosophers to write in the english language.
So much of the heritage of english language philosophy can be traced back to Hobbes, because prior to that, people were writing in Latin in Europe when they would write philosophy.