WEBVTT 00:02.040 --> 00:04.350 Professor Steven Smith: Okay, good morning. 00:04.350 --> 00:08.920 I'm going to show another movie today but not until a little bit 00:08.917 --> 00:10.437 later in the class. 00:10.440 --> 00:12.200 We'll get it. We'll get there. 00:12.200 --> 00:17.250 Don't worry! It doesn't fit until the last 00:17.253 --> 00:19.833 part of the class. 00:19.830 --> 00:24.140 But today, I want to talk about sovereignty. 00:24.140 --> 00:28.450 There are two great concepts that come out of Hobbes that you 00:28.453 --> 00:29.823 have to remember. 00:29.820 --> 00:33.490 One is the state of nature and the other is sovereignty. 00:33.490 --> 00:39.080 I spoke a bit about the first one yesterday or Monday rather. 00:39.080 --> 00:44.640 Today, I want to talk about Hobbes' theory of the sovereign 00:44.640 --> 00:48.380 state, the creation of the sovereign. 00:48.380 --> 00:52.030 Hobbes refers to the sovereign as a mortal god, 00:52.028 --> 00:56.388 as his answer to the problems of the state of nature, 00:56.390 --> 00:59.590 the state, the condition of life being solitary, 00:59.586 --> 01:01.826 poor, nasty, brutish and short. 01:01.829 --> 01:05.469 And it is only the creation of the sovereign for Hobbes, 01:05.472 --> 01:08.322 endowed or possessed with absolute power, 01:08.319 --> 01:12.189 that is sufficient to put an end to the condition of 01:12.189 --> 01:17.829 perpetual uncertainty, anxiety and unrest that is the 01:17.826 --> 01:21.766 case of the natural condition. 01:21.769 --> 01:26.919 Let me talk for a while about some of the formal features of 01:26.923 --> 01:31.293 Hobbes' sovereign power, of the Hobbesian state. 01:31.290 --> 01:36.040 In the first place, what I want to impress upon you 01:36.036 --> 01:41.636 is that the sovereign is for Hobbes less a person than it is 01:41.636 --> 01:43.816 or he is an office. 01:43.819 --> 01:48.309 The sovereign is described by Hobbes as an artificial person 01:48.313 --> 01:53.043 by which he means the sovereign is the creation of the contract 01:53.035 --> 01:57.295 or the covenant that brought this office into being. 01:57.300 --> 02:01.220 The sovereign does not exist by nature but rather, 02:01.223 --> 02:05.393 Hobbes tells us again, the sovereignty is the product 02:05.388 --> 02:07.148 of art or science. 02:07.150 --> 02:10.680 It is the product, the creation of the people or 02:10.679 --> 02:14.209 of what we might call, in Jeffersonian language, 02:14.209 --> 02:18.189 it is the product of the consent of the governed. 02:18.189 --> 02:21.779 The sovereign and, again, this is crucial, 02:21.780 --> 02:25.200 is for Hobbes, the representative of the 02:25.196 --> 02:27.256 people. He is the sovereign 02:27.256 --> 02:30.696 representative. It is the people who endow the 02:30.701 --> 02:36.081 sovereign with the authority to represent them on their behalf. 02:36.080 --> 02:40.590 And, in that respect, Hobbes' sovereign has many of 02:40.594 --> 02:46.104 the features or characteristics that we come to associate with 02:46.101 --> 02:51.791 what we call modern executive power or executive authority. 02:51.789 --> 02:55.339 When Louis XIV of France famously said L'état c'est 02:55.342 --> 02:58.112 moi. "I am the state," he was 02:58.112 --> 03:02.072 expressing a peculiarly pre-modern in that way 03:02.073 --> 03:05.413 conception of the state; that is to say, 03:05.413 --> 03:09.333 he regarded the state as in some ways his personal property. 03:09.330 --> 03:14.000 "I am the state. The state am I." 03:14.000 --> 03:16.770 But this is very different from Hobbes' sovereign. 03:16.770 --> 03:22.490 The state for Hobbes is not the possession of the sovereign. 03:22.490 --> 03:24.170 Rather, the sovereign does not own the state. 03:24.169 --> 03:30.009 He is appointed or authorized to secure for the people the, 03:30.007 --> 03:33.827 in many ways, limited ends of peace and 03:33.831 --> 03:37.621 security. He has much the same function 03:37.623 --> 03:42.513 and to some degree much of the same personality as what we 03:42.505 --> 03:47.215 would call a modern day CEO, that is to say there is a kind 03:47.219 --> 03:50.789 of anonymity and impersonality about the sovereign. 03:50.789 --> 03:55.929 I mean, unless you're in the Yale entrepreneurial society who 03:55.932 --> 03:59.192 can name the CEOs of many companies? 03:59.190 --> 04:00.790 And the answer is you probably can't. 04:00.789 --> 04:05.199 They are for the most part relatively anonymous individuals 04:05.196 --> 04:08.446 unless, you know, they get into trouble like Ken 04:08.452 --> 04:11.902 Lay or someone like that or do something amazing like Bill 04:11.896 --> 04:14.176 Gates. For the most part, 04:14.182 --> 04:19.892 they are rather impersonal and anonymous and that is in many 04:19.893 --> 04:24.543 ways the characteristic of Hobbes' sovereign. 04:24.540 --> 04:29.220 Hobbes' theory of the sovereign, interestingly, 04:29.222 --> 04:35.842 contains within itself elements of both secular absolutism and, 04:35.839 --> 04:39.269 in some ways, modern liberalism and it is the 04:39.267 --> 04:43.547 tension between these two that I want to bring out in my 04:43.552 --> 04:46.912 discussion here. The power of the sovereign, 04:46.908 --> 04:50.038 Hobbes continually insists, must be unlimited. 04:50.040 --> 04:54.250 Yet, at the same time, he tells us that the sovereign 04:54.252 --> 04:58.552 is the creation of the people whom he represents or it 04:58.545 --> 05:02.505 represents. Although Hobbes is widely taken 05:02.508 --> 05:07.738 to be a defender of monarchical absolutism, you will note, 05:07.740 --> 05:11.690 in your readings, that he displays a kind of 05:11.685 --> 05:17.365 studied neutrality over actually what form the sovereign should 05:17.374 --> 05:20.784 take. He only insists that sovereign 05:20.782 --> 05:25.602 power remain absolute and undivided whether it belongs to 05:25.602 --> 05:28.962 a single person, a few, or the many. 05:28.959 --> 05:33.049 And among the powers that the sovereign, he insists, 05:33.046 --> 05:35.606 must control are, for example, 05:35.610 --> 05:40.820 laws concerning property, the right of declaring war and 05:40.818 --> 05:44.888 peace, what we would call foreign policy, 05:44.889 --> 05:48.309 rules of justice concerning life and death, 05:48.309 --> 05:51.239 which is to say criminal law, and, 05:51.240 --> 05:55.760 of course, the right to determine what books and ideas 05:55.761 --> 05:59.431 are permissible, that is to say the right of 05:59.430 --> 06:03.080 censorship. In a sense, the core of Hobbes' 06:03.082 --> 06:07.372 theory of sovereignty can be boiled down to the statement 06:07.368 --> 06:12.418 that the sovereign and only the sovereign is the source of law. 06:12.420 --> 06:16.550 06:16.550 --> 06:19.930 The law is what the sovereign says it is. 06:19.930 --> 06:23.590 Does that sound in any way familiar from what we have read 06:23.589 --> 06:24.359 this term? 06:24.360 --> 06:27.490 06:27.490 --> 06:30.890 Anyone? Sound familiar? 06:30.890 --> 06:34.650 Thrasymachus? Do you remember that name, 06:34.648 --> 06:36.468 Book I of the Republic? 06:36.470 --> 06:40.830 Justice is what the stronger say it is. 06:40.829 --> 06:46.359 Hobbes tells us that the law is what the sovereign commands. 06:46.360 --> 06:50.920 This is sometimes known as the doctrine of legal positivism, 06:50.915 --> 06:55.465 which is to say that law is the command of the sovereign, 06:55.470 --> 06:58.060 a sort of command theory of law. 06:58.060 --> 07:02.220 And, again, that seems to point back to Thrasymachus' point of 07:02.218 --> 07:05.488 view in the first book of the Republic. 07:05.490 --> 07:08.830 There is for Hobbes, as for Thrasymachus, 07:08.830 --> 07:13.590 no higher court of appeal than the will or the word of the 07:13.590 --> 07:16.710 sovereign, no transcendent law, 07:16.710 --> 07:21.000 no divine law, no source of authority outside 07:21.001 --> 07:23.051 sovereign command. 07:23.050 --> 07:28.390 And sovereign is appointed for Hobbes to be much like an umpire 07:28.390 --> 07:33.210 in a baseball or a football game, to set the rules of the 07:33.214 --> 07:36.464 game. But the Hobbesian sovereign, 07:36.464 --> 07:40.354 unlike umpires, are not just the enforcers of 07:40.354 --> 07:44.424 the rules or the interpreters of the rules, 07:44.420 --> 07:48.830 the sovereign is also the creator, the shaper and maker of 07:48.831 --> 07:52.421 the rules. And Hobbes draws from this the 07:52.419 --> 07:56.499 startling conclusion, in many ways the infamous 07:56.496 --> 08:01.456 conclusion that the sovereign can never act unjustly. 08:01.459 --> 08:03.699 The sovereign can never act unjustly, why? 08:03.699 --> 08:08.069 Because the sovereign is the source of law and the sovereign 08:08.074 --> 08:11.044 is the source of the rules of justice. 08:11.040 --> 08:14.990 Therefore, Hobbes concludes, he can never act unjustly. 08:14.990 --> 08:19.620 And he supports this example by a deeply perverse and amusing, 08:19.621 --> 08:22.961 I have to say, reading from a biblical story, 08:22.961 --> 08:24.861 do you remember this? 08:24.860 --> 08:28.890 He refers to the story of David and Uriah. 08:28.889 --> 08:32.699 Everybody will remember that story from Sunday school or from 08:32.701 --> 08:34.481 Hebrew school or whatever. 08:34.480 --> 08:38.240 Does anyone remember that David was the king at that time? 08:38.240 --> 08:42.900 He was the king of Israel and he coveted Uriah's wife 08:42.903 --> 08:46.003 Bathsheba. He wanted to sleep with 08:45.997 --> 08:48.627 Bathsheba, so what did he do? 08:48.629 --> 08:53.729 He had Uriah killed so he could sleep with her. 08:53.730 --> 08:59.360 And Hobbes reasons from this story that while David's action 08:59.359 --> 09:04.799 may have sinned against God, he did no injustice to Uriah, 09:04.797 --> 09:08.017 imagine that. I think Uriah might have had a 09:08.015 --> 09:09.925 different point of view about this. 09:09.929 --> 09:12.979 He did no injustice to Uriah because, as the lawful 09:12.980 --> 09:17.720 sovereign, he could do any, not just anything he liked but 09:17.723 --> 09:22.583 whatever he did was set by the rules of the law. 09:22.580 --> 09:26.090 And when Hobbes tells that story, which he mentions a 09:26.093 --> 09:31.113 couple of times in the book, one can only imagine he must 09:31.111 --> 09:37.951 have had a kind of wry grin on his face when he wrote that out. 09:37.950 --> 09:41.460 In fact, next semester I'm teaching an entire course 09:41.460 --> 09:45.660 devoted to Hobbes' critique of religion in which this will, 09:45.659 --> 09:47.349 among other things, figure prominently. 09:47.350 --> 09:50.700 09:50.700 --> 09:54.360 But Hobbes' teaching about law is, in some ways, 09:54.361 --> 09:57.791 less Draconian than it might first appear. 09:57.789 --> 10:01.109 He makes clear that law is what the sovereign says it is. 10:01.110 --> 10:04.040 There can be no such thing as an unjust law, 10:04.040 --> 10:07.110 he infers, again, because the sovereign is the 10:07.107 --> 10:08.877 source of all justice. 10:08.879 --> 10:11.789 But he does distinguish, he tells us, 10:11.789 --> 10:14.699 between a just law and a good law. 10:14.700 --> 10:17.440 All laws are by definition just, he tells us, 10:17.444 --> 10:21.254 but it doesn't follow that all laws are by definition good. 10:21.250 --> 10:24.960 "A good law," he says in chapter 30, "is that which is 10:24.960 --> 10:27.620 needful for the good of the people." 10:27.620 --> 10:31.280 A good law is needful for the good of the people. 10:31.279 --> 10:34.699 But then one asks, what are the criteria by which 10:34.701 --> 10:37.411 we determine the good of the people? 10:37.410 --> 10:38.810 How is this determined? 10:38.809 --> 10:44.459 And Hobbes makes clear that the sovereign is not invested with 10:44.461 --> 10:49.651 the authority to exercise a kind of absolute control over 10:49.650 --> 10:52.430 everything that people do. 10:52.429 --> 10:55.749 The purpose of law, Hobbes tell us, 10:55.745 --> 11:00.225 is not so much to control but to facilitate. 11:00.230 --> 11:04.140 Consider just the following passage from chapter 30, 11:04.142 --> 11:06.182 section 21. Hobbes writes: 11:06.177 --> 11:09.137 "For the use of laws, which are but rules 11:09.143 --> 11:13.003 authorized," he says, "is not to bind the people from 11:12.998 --> 11:14.998 all voluntary actions. 11:15.000 --> 11:18.930 It is not to bind them from voluntary actions but to direct 11:18.932 --> 11:23.142 and keep them in such motion as not to hurt themselves by their 11:23.136 --> 11:27.576 own impetuous desires, rashness or indiscretion as 11:27.583 --> 11:33.053 hedges are set not to stop travelers but to keep them on 11:33.048 --> 11:36.618 their way." This is the force or purpose of 11:36.617 --> 11:38.867 law to set rules, to keep people, 11:38.865 --> 11:41.295 as he puts it, on their way, 11:41.304 --> 11:47.144 a law that is intended simply to constrain and control for its 11:47.141 --> 11:49.201 own sake, Hobbes says, 11:49.204 --> 11:50.884 cannot be a good law. 11:50.879 --> 11:56.189 The purpose of a good law is to facilitate human agency in some 11:56.190 --> 11:57.510 ways. And I think, 11:57.511 --> 12:01.301 again, that too is central to Hobbes' theory of the sovereign. 12:01.299 --> 12:06.999 Its purpose is to facilitate, not simply to control and 12:06.995 --> 12:10.685 inhibit. But the power to control or the 12:10.686 --> 12:15.526 power of law for Hobbes also very much applies and here is 12:15.533 --> 12:19.193 one of his most controversial doctrines. 12:19.190 --> 12:22.980 It must certainly apply to matters of opinion to what we 12:22.977 --> 12:25.867 would call today First Amendment issues. 12:25.870 --> 12:29.020 12:29.019 --> 12:31.809 This is something that Hobbes insists upon. 12:31.809 --> 12:35.579 "For the actions of men," he says, "proceed from their 12:35.577 --> 12:38.637 opinions. Actions proceed from opinions. 12:38.639 --> 12:43.199 And in the well governing of opinions consisteth the well 12:43.198 --> 12:45.638 governing of men's actions." 12:45.639 --> 12:50.089 So, if we are going to govern or regulate human behavior, 12:50.085 --> 12:53.335 we have to begin by regulating opinion. 12:53.340 --> 12:55.330 And it follows from this, Hobbes believes, 12:55.332 --> 12:58.202 that the sovereign has the right to decide what opinions, 12:58.200 --> 13:03.120 what books, what ideas are conducive to peace and which 13:03.118 --> 13:07.488 ones aim simply to stir up war and discontent? 13:07.490 --> 13:11.460 13:11.460 --> 13:14.800 And these comments of Hobbes' about the sovereign's power to 13:14.795 --> 13:18.295 control opinions are directed at two principal institutions, 13:18.299 --> 13:25.319 the Church and, guess what the other one is, 13:25.316 --> 13:30.746 the university. Both of these for Hobbes he 13:30.748 --> 13:35.468 considers to be locus, the focus of or centers of 13:35.474 --> 13:40.894 seditious opinion that require to remain under sovereign 13:40.889 --> 13:43.379 control. By the churches, 13:43.378 --> 13:46.778 Hobbes is speaking of the reformed church but, 13:46.776 --> 13:50.986 in particular, he is concerned with those 13:50.987 --> 13:57.737 radical puritan sects of the type that later came and founded 13:57.741 --> 14:01.021 America, these radical sects that 14:01.023 --> 14:05.793 elevate matters of conscience and private belief over and 14:05.792 --> 14:08.862 above the law, that is to say arrogating to 14:08.859 --> 14:11.979 themselves, to the rights of conscience and the private 14:11.981 --> 14:14.431 belief, the powers to judge the 14:14.433 --> 14:16.923 sovereign. It was these dissenting 14:16.915 --> 14:19.805 Protestants, it was these dissenting sects, 14:19.811 --> 14:23.951 that formed the rank and file of Cromwell's armies during the 14:23.947 --> 14:25.737 Civil War in England. 14:25.740 --> 14:29.840 They formed the rank and file of the republican armies in 14:29.836 --> 14:32.686 England against the rule of the king. 14:32.690 --> 14:37.040 And, Hobbes tell us he would banish all doctrines that 14:37.043 --> 14:40.743 profess to make the individual or the sect, 14:40.740 --> 14:44.330 more importantly in some ways the sect, the judge of the 14:44.327 --> 14:46.867 sovereign. It is only in the state of 14:46.865 --> 14:50.305 nature, he tells us, that individuals have the right 14:50.308 --> 14:54.628 to determine just and unjust, right and wrong for themselves. 14:54.629 --> 14:59.369 Once we enter society, once we engage or conclude the 14:59.370 --> 15:03.200 social compact, we transfer our power to do 15:03.199 --> 15:08.669 this to the sovereign to determine these matters for us. 15:08.669 --> 15:13.349 And just as important as the radical churches and the 15:13.354 --> 15:19.214 reformed sects is for Hobbes the university and its curriculum. 15:19.210 --> 15:23.560 In particular, Hobbes faults the universities 15:23.555 --> 15:27.695 for teaching what, for teaching the radical 15:27.703 --> 15:33.533 doctrines of Aristotleanism in the seventeenth century. 15:33.529 --> 15:38.899 Aristotle in this period was the source of modern republican 15:38.901 --> 15:42.271 ideas, ideas about self government, 15:42.269 --> 15:46.779 ideas about in some ways what we might call direct democracy 15:46.775 --> 15:50.775 or participatory democracy, people who believe that the 15:50.779 --> 15:53.829 only legitimate form of government is one where 15:53.827 --> 15:57.737 Aristotle says citizens take turns ruling and being ruled in 15:57.737 --> 15:59.917 turn. It was, above all, 15:59.924 --> 16:04.414 the influence of the classics, Aristotle and Cicero in 16:04.414 --> 16:07.584 particular, that Hobbes regards as an 16:07.581 --> 16:12.261 important cause for the recent civil war and the regicide of 16:12.259 --> 16:15.449 Charles I. Consider the following passage 16:15.445 --> 16:18.245 that he writes: "As to rebellion against 16:18.247 --> 16:21.287 monarchy, one of the most frequent causes 16:21.285 --> 16:25.135 is the reading of the books of policy and history of the 16:25.144 --> 16:27.184 ancient Greeks and Romans. 16:27.179 --> 16:31.659 Reading of those books leads people to rebel against 16:31.662 --> 16:35.972 monarchy, for which young men like yourselves," 16:35.970 --> 16:39.880 he says, or young women too, "for which young men and all 16:39.875 --> 16:44.195 others that are unprovided by the antidote of solid reason," 16:44.200 --> 16:48.030 who are susceptible that is to reading these stories and 16:48.028 --> 16:51.438 reading these books, "receive a strong and 16:51.438 --> 16:56.178 delightful impression of the great exploits of war." 16:56.179 --> 16:59.469 "From reading of such books," Hobbes continues, 16:59.465 --> 17:03.535 "men have undertaken to kill their kings because the Greek 17:03.536 --> 17:08.106 and Latin writers in their books and discourses of policy make it 17:08.106 --> 17:12.456 lawful and laudable for any man to do so provided before he do 17:12.463 --> 17:14.823 it he call him a tyrant." 17:14.819 --> 17:17.959 That's what you learn, Hobbes believes, 17:17.962 --> 17:22.762 from the reading of Aristotle and the Greeks and Romans, 17:22.759 --> 17:26.319 regicide, that the only legitimate form of government is 17:26.318 --> 17:30.008 a republic and that it is a lawful and even it's your duty 17:30.006 --> 17:31.426 to kill your king. 17:31.430 --> 17:35.350 Of course, before doing so, he says, "you must call him 17:35.352 --> 17:40.182 first a tyrant." It's a wonderful passage. 17:40.180 --> 17:44.420 And this is so interesting, I think, not only because of 17:44.416 --> 17:48.106 its humor and Hobbes' in many ways characteristic 17:48.113 --> 17:52.263 exaggerations, but because it shows how much 17:52.258 --> 17:56.728 emphasis Hobbes puts on the reform of opinion, 17:56.730 --> 18:00.320 the reform of ideas, in many ways like Machiavelli 18:00.317 --> 18:05.877 and like Plato too before him, Hobbes regards himself as an 18:05.876 --> 18:11.846 educator of princes, an educator and a transformer, 18:11.850 --> 18:13.090 a reformer of ideas. 18:13.089 --> 18:16.869 There is a kind of internal irony here I think because 18:16.868 --> 18:20.058 Hobbes sometimes writes as if, as we've seen, 18:20.062 --> 18:24.042 as if human beings are nothing more than complex machines that 18:24.039 --> 18:27.819 mechanically obey the laws of attraction and repulsion. 18:27.819 --> 18:31.899 But he also obviously writes that we are beings with will and 18:31.895 --> 18:35.015 purpose who are uniquely guided by opinions, 18:35.019 --> 18:39.349 ideas, and doctrines and it is in many ways the first business 18:39.347 --> 18:43.247 of the sovereign to act as a moral reformer of ideas. 18:43.250 --> 18:48.630 Hobbes realizes this is a difficult and uphill task that 18:48.633 --> 18:51.083 he has set for himself. 18:51.079 --> 18:56.259 And, in a rare moment of sort of personal self-reflection or 18:56.258 --> 19:00.588 self-reference, he notes somewhat drolly that 19:00.590 --> 19:06.270 the novelty of his ideas will make it difficult for them to 19:06.271 --> 19:08.231 find an audience. 19:08.230 --> 19:12.250 "I am at the point of believing, he says, 19:12.245 --> 19:17.765 "that my labor will be as useless as the commonwealth of 19:17.765 --> 19:20.795 Plato," he says in a moment of sort of 19:20.801 --> 19:24.091 uncharacteristic despair, "will be as useless as the 19:24.085 --> 19:25.755 commonwealth of Plato." 19:25.759 --> 19:29.529 "For Plato" he says "also is of the opinion that it is 19:29.525 --> 19:33.925 impossible for the disorders of the state ever to be taken away 19:33.930 --> 19:36.630 until sovereigns be philosophers." 19:36.630 --> 19:40.640 And while, in many ways, initially despairing of the 19:40.639 --> 19:45.509 possibility of finding a sort of friendly reception or audience 19:45.513 --> 19:49.323 for his work, Hobbes then goes on in a more 19:49.320 --> 19:54.690 optimistic note to observe that his book is considerably simpler 19:54.688 --> 19:57.668 and easier to read than Plato's. 19:57.670 --> 20:00.760 Again, you might have a discussion about that over which 20:00.757 --> 20:01.877 is the easier one. 20:01.880 --> 20:05.960 But, Hobbes believes it is simpler and easier and therefore 20:05.955 --> 20:09.815 more likely to catch the ear of a sympathetic prince. 20:09.820 --> 20:12.360 "I recover some hope," he says. 20:12.359 --> 20:16.109 "I recover some hope that one time or other this writing of 20:16.106 --> 20:20.176 mine may fall into the hands of a sovereign who will consider it 20:20.176 --> 20:23.346 for himself, for it is short and I think 20:23.354 --> 20:26.304 clear." Well, we might question that. 20:26.299 --> 20:30.879 He says it's a short book and "I think clear" he writes. 20:30.880 --> 20:33.320 Well, it's complex and long. 20:33.319 --> 20:35.699 But nevertheless, perhaps hoping that his 20:35.703 --> 20:39.403 advertising it in this way will gain the ear of a sovereign and 20:39.397 --> 20:41.837 that "without the help" he continues, 20:41.839 --> 20:46.429 "of any interested or envious interpreter and by the exercise 20:46.429 --> 20:50.559 of entire sovereignty in protecting the public teaching 20:50.559 --> 20:54.999 of it convert this truth of speculation into the utility of 20:54.996 --> 20:58.686 practice," the very end of chapter 31, 20:58.691 --> 21:04.001 "will convert this truth of speculation into the utility of 21:04.000 --> 21:07.730 practice." So, Hobbes clearly believes or 21:07.728 --> 21:12.468 thinks that this will be a useful book for a sovereign to 21:12.465 --> 21:17.705 read and hoping it will gain the ear of a sympathetic sovereign 21:17.711 --> 21:20.081 or potential sovereign. 21:20.080 --> 21:23.300 21:23.299 --> 21:26.429 Hobbes may, I think, overestimate or maybe I really 21:26.427 --> 21:29.987 should say underestimate the difficulty of the book but he 21:29.992 --> 21:33.872 returns to this again at the very end of Leviathan. 21:33.869 --> 21:36.859 "The universities" he says there, where he talks again a 21:36.862 --> 21:39.312 little bit about the audience for the book, 21:39.309 --> 21:43.719 "the universities," he says, " are the fountains of civil 21:43.724 --> 21:45.384 and moral doctrine. 21:45.380 --> 21:48.950 The universities are the fountains of civil and moral 21:48.952 --> 21:53.352 doctrine and have the obligation to teach the correct doctrine of 21:53.349 --> 21:54.929 rights and duties." 21:54.930 --> 21:57.660 And this means for Hobbes, first of all, 21:57.662 --> 22:01.522 adopting his book as the authoritative teaching on moral 22:01.516 --> 22:04.806 and political doctrine in the universities. 22:04.809 --> 22:09.809 This should be the required textbook of political science of 22:09.805 --> 22:14.205 political teaching in the universities to replace the 22:14.208 --> 22:16.238 older textbook, i.e. 22:16.240 --> 22:18.330 Aristotle's Politics. 22:18.329 --> 22:21.829 "Therefore," he says, "I think it may be profitably 22:21.829 --> 22:25.889 printed and more profitably taught in the universities," he 22:25.890 --> 22:27.570 confidently asserts. 22:27.569 --> 22:30.799 "The ideal audience for the book," he says "should be the 22:30.797 --> 22:33.087 preachers, the gentry, the lawyers, 22:33.092 --> 22:36.512 men of affairs, who drawing such water as they 22:36.514 --> 22:41.314 find from the book can use it," he says, "to sprinkle the same 22:41.311 --> 22:45.441 both from the pulpit and from their conversation upon the 22:45.439 --> 22:47.239 people." This is how he sees it, 22:47.237 --> 22:49.037 that it should be taught from the pulpit. 22:49.039 --> 22:52.719 It should be taught from the universities and from this 22:52.720 --> 22:56.060 conversation will be sprinkled upon the people. 22:56.059 --> 22:59.719 Hobbes' hope, like that of all the great 22:59.718 --> 23:04.688 political philosophers, was to be a kind of legislator 23:04.689 --> 23:08.139 for mankind. This again is a book with epic, 23:08.137 --> 23:09.077 epic ambition. 23:09.080 --> 23:15.400 23:15.400 --> 23:19.070 Let me mention, I've emphasized in many ways 23:19.065 --> 23:24.175 the absolutist and authoritarian side of Hobbes' teaching. 23:24.180 --> 23:27.840 Let me talk about something that might sound oxymoronic. 23:27.839 --> 23:31.809 Let me call it for the moment Hobbesian liberalism. 23:31.809 --> 23:36.179 Hobbes enjoys describing the sovereign in the most absolute 23:36.182 --> 23:37.692 and extreme terms. 23:37.690 --> 23:42.620 Sovereign is to have supreme command over life and death, 23:42.616 --> 23:46.836 war and peace, what is to be taught and heard. 23:46.839 --> 23:50.759 And yet, in many ways, this Hobbesian sovereign aims 23:50.756 --> 23:54.516 to allow for ample room for individual liberty. 23:54.519 --> 23:59.699 And he even sets some limits on the legitimate use of sovereign 23:59.701 --> 24:02.511 power. For all of his tough talk, 24:02.511 --> 24:07.041 Hobbes takes justice and the rule of law very seriously, 24:07.042 --> 24:10.012 far more seriously than, for example, 24:10.007 --> 24:11.817 does Machiavelli. 24:11.819 --> 24:16.309 At one time in the book or at one point he maintains that a 24:16.305 --> 24:21.175 person cannot be made to accuse themselves without the assurance 24:21.177 --> 24:24.147 of pardon. You can't be forced to accuse 24:24.146 --> 24:27.396 yourself, what we could call the Fifth Amendment. 24:27.400 --> 24:29.780 You cannot be forced to accuse yourself. 24:29.779 --> 24:32.929 Similarly, he says, a wife or a parent cannot be 24:32.933 --> 24:35.083 coerced to accuse a loved one. 24:35.079 --> 24:38.689 And, in a similar point, he maintains that punishment 24:38.693 --> 24:42.383 can never be used as an instrument of revenge but only 24:42.377 --> 24:46.337 for what he calls the correction or what we would call the 24:46.338 --> 24:48.908 rehabilitation of the offender. 24:48.910 --> 24:54.250 Add to the above Hobbes' repeated insistence that law 24:54.250 --> 24:59.900 serve as an instrument for achieving social equality. 24:59.900 --> 25:03.900 In a chapter called, "Of the Office of the Sovereign 25:03.903 --> 25:08.063 Representative," Hobbes argues that justice be equally 25:08.063 --> 25:11.363 administered to all classes of people, 25:11.359 --> 25:15.939 rich, as well as poor, equal application of justice. 25:15.940 --> 25:21.390 He maintains further the titles of nobility are of value only 25:21.390 --> 25:27.020 for the benefits they confer on those of lesser rank or they're 25:27.021 --> 25:29.021 not useful at all. 25:29.019 --> 25:30.979 Equal justice, he tells us, 25:30.978 --> 25:35.498 requires equal taxation policy and he seems to be proposing a 25:35.499 --> 25:38.889 kind of consumption tax so that the rich, 25:38.890 --> 25:43.170 who consume more will have to pay their fair share. 25:43.170 --> 25:46.930 And he argues that indigent citizens, who are unable to 25:46.929 --> 25:50.869 provide for themselves, should not be forced to rely 25:50.872 --> 25:55.512 simply upon the private charity of individuals but should be 25:55.513 --> 25:58.033 maintained at public expense. 25:58.029 --> 26:02.199 He seems, in this way, to anticipate what we might 26:02.204 --> 26:07.404 think of as the modern welfare state that public assistance be 26:07.402 --> 26:09.632 provided, and the poor, 26:09.629 --> 26:14.539 not simply depend on the private goodwill of the others. 26:14.540 --> 26:17.840 26:17.839 --> 26:22.399 But most importantly, I think, is to go back to the 26:22.395 --> 26:26.395 importance given to the individual in Hobbes' 26:26.403 --> 26:29.853 philosophy. Hobbes derives the very power 26:29.853 --> 26:33.953 of the sovereign from the natural right of each individual 26:33.947 --> 26:37.177 to do as they like in the state of nature. 26:37.180 --> 26:40.600 And it follows, I think, that the purpose of 26:40.603 --> 26:45.063 the sovereign is really to safeguard the natural right of 26:45.060 --> 26:49.840 each individual but to regulate this right so that it becomes 26:49.837 --> 26:54.367 consistent with the right of others and not simply again a 26:54.374 --> 26:57.324 kind of open war against all. 26:57.319 --> 27:01.949 What is significant about this, I think, is the priority that 27:01.952 --> 27:04.812 Hobbes gives to rights over duties. 27:04.809 --> 27:08.979 This, in many ways arguably, makes him the founding father 27:08.981 --> 27:13.081 or maybe we should say godfather of modern liberalism, 27:13.079 --> 27:18.209 the importance given to rights over duties, of the individual 27:18.212 --> 27:22.492 over in many ways the collective or common good. 27:22.490 --> 27:26.580 And I think this is expressed in Hobbes' novel and in many 27:26.579 --> 27:30.449 ways altogether unprecedented teaching about liberty in 27:30.453 --> 27:33.543 chapter 21, a very famous and important 27:33.539 --> 27:35.919 chapter. And here he distinguishes the 27:35.915 --> 27:39.145 liberty of, what he calls the liberty of the ancients, 27:39.150 --> 27:43.500 or what he doesn't exactly call but I'll call the liberty of the 27:43.500 --> 27:46.400 ancients and the liberty of the moderns. 27:46.400 --> 27:48.890 The ancients, he believes, 27:48.888 --> 27:54.758 operated with a defective understanding of human freedom. 27:54.759 --> 27:58.189 For the ancients, liberty meant living in a 27:58.189 --> 28:02.519 self-governing republic, living in a republic in which 28:02.516 --> 28:07.166 everyone again took some share in the ruling offices. 28:07.170 --> 28:11.610 Liberty, in other words, for the ancients was not just a 28:11.609 --> 28:13.949 property of the individual. 28:13.950 --> 28:18.640 It was an attribute of the regime of which one was a 28:18.642 --> 28:21.602 member. "The Athenians and the Romans," 28:21.595 --> 28:24.465 he says, "were free, that is they were free 28:24.474 --> 28:27.854 commonwealths, not that any particular man had 28:27.854 --> 28:31.854 the liberty to resist his own representative but that his 28:31.853 --> 28:35.783 representative had the liberty to resist or invade other 28:35.781 --> 28:37.751 people." In other words, 28:37.751 --> 28:40.941 liberty for the ancients was a collective good, 28:40.944 --> 28:43.934 the liberty, as he says, to resist or invade 28:43.930 --> 28:46.890 other people. It was a property of the 28:46.887 --> 28:50.727 commonwealth not of the individuals who inhabited it. 28:50.730 --> 28:55.430 But that sense of collective liberty, the freedom to resist 28:55.429 --> 28:58.749 or invade is, in fact, even opposed to the 28:58.751 --> 29:02.641 modern idea of liberty that Hobbes proposes. 29:02.640 --> 29:05.750 And by liberty Hobbes means something that sounds very 29:05.751 --> 29:08.881 familiar to us. Liberty means the absence of 29:08.883 --> 29:11.783 constraints or impediments to action. 29:11.779 --> 29:16.079 We are free to the extent that we can act in an unimpeded 29:16.079 --> 29:19.509 manner. And, it follows from him that 29:19.507 --> 29:24.977 political liberty means the freedom to act where the law is 29:24.983 --> 29:27.063 silent, as he says. 29:27.059 --> 29:29.899 Think of that, that where the law is silent, 29:29.897 --> 29:33.457 we have the freedom to do or not to do as we choose, 29:33.460 --> 29:37.310 very important to the way we think of liberty today in a 29:37.309 --> 29:40.459 modern and you might say liberal democracy. 29:40.460 --> 29:44.870 Hobbes' sovereign is more likely to allow citizens a zone 29:44.867 --> 29:49.507 of private liberty where they are free to act as they choose 29:49.511 --> 29:54.391 than in the classical republic where there is a kind of coerced 29:54.391 --> 29:58.331 participation in collective affairs or in political 29:58.327 --> 30:02.337 deliberation. And Hobbes here takes a dig at 30:02.340 --> 30:05.570 the defenders of the view, in his own day, 30:05.567 --> 30:09.657 that only the citizens of a republic can be free. 30:09.660 --> 30:13.420 "There is written," he says, "on the turrets of the city of 30:13.422 --> 30:17.512 Lucca…" and let me just ask before I continue this passage, 30:17.510 --> 30:19.760 anybody here in Pearson College? 30:19.759 --> 30:22.679 So, you will know the Dean Mr. 30:22.684 --> 30:25.224 Amerigo, yeah, your dean? 30:25.220 --> 30:28.950 Your dean is from the city of Lucca. 30:28.950 --> 30:32.260 Ask him if this is true when you see him. 30:32.259 --> 30:35.499 "There is written on the turrets of the city of Lucca in 30:35.497 --> 30:37.967 great characters, meaning great letters, 30:37.970 --> 30:41.580 that this day the word libertas, 30:41.578 --> 30:47.278 libertas is written on the walls of the turrets of the 30:47.275 --> 30:50.645 city of Lucca." Let's find out if that's still 30:50.646 --> 30:52.686 true. "Yet, no man," Hobbes 30:52.688 --> 30:57.458 continues, "can thence infer that a particular man has more 30:57.463 --> 31:01.993 liberty or immunity from the service of the commonwealth 31:01.991 --> 31:07.431 there than in Constantinople, the city of the Caliphs, 31:07.430 --> 31:10.720 the Caliphate. Living in a republic alone 31:10.719 --> 31:12.989 doesn't guarantee you more freedom. 31:12.990 --> 31:16.270 He says, freedom in that interesting passage, 31:16.271 --> 31:18.961 freedom here requires, as he puts it, 31:18.956 --> 31:21.786 immunity, "immunity from service." 31:21.789 --> 31:25.719 A regime is to be judged for Hobbes on how much private 31:25.716 --> 31:30.076 liberty, how much immunity it grants each of its citizens, 31:30.079 --> 31:34.369 an idea of individual liberty in many ways unknown and 31:34.367 --> 31:37.277 unprecedented in the modern world. 31:37.279 --> 31:41.669 And, in this respect, one can say that Hobbes has 31:41.673 --> 31:46.893 some connection to the creation of what we think of as the 31:46.889 --> 31:52.469 modern liberal state with its conception of private freedom as 31:52.472 --> 31:56.412 immunity from forced participation or forced 31:56.408 --> 31:59.518 participation in politics, 31:59.520 --> 32:02.830 32:02.829 --> 32:05.619 very different from the ancients. 32:05.620 --> 32:06.380 So what does this all mean? 32:06.380 --> 32:10.800 32:10.799 --> 32:16.139 Let me talk about what Hobbes has to say for us today, 32:16.135 --> 32:21.265 we who have in many ways become Hobbes' children. 32:21.269 --> 32:27.169 Hobbes gives us the definitive language of the modern state. 32:27.170 --> 32:31.850 Yet, he remains in many ways as contested for us as he was in 32:31.849 --> 32:34.159 his own time. For many today, 32:34.157 --> 32:37.947 Hobbes' conception of the Leviathan state is 32:37.949 --> 32:41.209 synonymous with anti-liberal absolutism. 32:41.210 --> 32:44.140 And yet for others, he opened the door to John 32:44.144 --> 32:47.084 Locke and the liberal theory of government. 32:47.079 --> 32:51.039 He taught the priority of rights over duties and he argued 32:51.041 --> 32:55.351 that the sovereign should serve the lowly interest or the lowly 32:55.350 --> 32:58.200 ends of providing peace and security, 32:58.200 --> 33:02.390 leaving it to individuals to determine for themselves how 33:02.389 --> 33:04.409 best to live their lives. 33:04.410 --> 33:08.830 Nonetheless, the liberty that subjects enjoy 33:08.833 --> 33:15.013 in Hobbes' plan falls in that area that he says the sovereign 33:15.006 --> 33:17.266 omits to regulate. 33:17.269 --> 33:21.549 Hobbes does not praise vigilance in defense of liberty 33:21.548 --> 33:26.068 and he denounces all efforts to resist the government. 33:26.069 --> 33:30.709 At best, one could say Hobbes is a kind of part-time liberal 33:30.713 --> 33:31.503 at best. 33:31.500 --> 33:34.600 33:34.599 --> 33:38.059 But Hobbes is best when he is providing us with, 33:38.063 --> 33:41.013 in many ways, the moral and psychological 33:41.011 --> 33:45.581 language in which we think about government and the state. 33:45.579 --> 33:49.809 The state is a product of a psychological struggle between 33:49.807 --> 33:53.067 the contending passions of pride and fear. 33:53.069 --> 33:58.019 Fear, you will remember is associated with the desire for 33:58.018 --> 34:00.488 security, order, rationality, 34:00.492 --> 34:04.132 and peace. Pride is connected with the 34:04.134 --> 34:07.344 love of glory, honor, recognition and 34:07.341 --> 34:10.821 ambition. All the goods of civilization, 34:10.823 --> 34:14.043 Hobbes tells us, stem from our ability to 34:14.042 --> 34:17.642 control pride. The very title of the book 34:17.644 --> 34:22.464 comes from this wonderful biblical passage from Job where 34:22.458 --> 34:27.528 Leviathan is described as king of the children of pride. 34:27.530 --> 34:32.500 And the 19 laws of nature that Hobbes develops in his book 34:32.500 --> 34:37.380 really are there simply to enumerate or instruct us about 34:37.383 --> 34:41.223 the virtues of sociability and civility, 34:41.219 --> 34:47.909 especially directed against the sin of pride or hubris. 34:47.909 --> 34:52.039 So, the modern state, as we know it and still have 34:52.041 --> 34:57.181 it, in many ways grew out of the Hobbesian desire for security 34:57.184 --> 35:02.334 and the fear of death that can only be achieved at the expense 35:02.327 --> 35:05.697 of the desire for honor and glory. 35:05.699 --> 35:09.259 The Hobbesian state was intended to secure the 35:09.261 --> 35:12.901 conditions of life, even a highly civilized and 35:12.902 --> 35:16.462 cultivated life but one calculated in terms of 35:16.463 --> 35:19.553 self-interest and risk avoidance. 35:19.550 --> 35:23.290 35:23.289 --> 35:29.579 Hobbes wants us to be fearful and to avoid dangerous courses 35:29.575 --> 35:34.575 of action that are inflamed by beliefs in honor, 35:34.583 --> 35:37.463 ambition, and the like. 35:37.460 --> 35:43.180 The Hobbesian fearful man is not likely to become someone who 35:43.181 --> 35:48.141 risks life for liberty, for honor, or for a cause. 35:48.139 --> 35:53.809 He's more likely to be someone who plays by the rules, 35:53.807 --> 35:58.617 avoids dangers, and bets on the sure thing. 35:58.619 --> 36:02.339 The Hobbesian citizen is not likely to be a risk taker, 36:02.337 --> 36:05.707 like a George Washington or an Andrew Carnegie. 36:05.710 --> 36:11.560 He is more likely to think like an actuary or a CPA or an 36:11.560 --> 36:16.470 insurance agent, always calculating the odds and 36:16.470 --> 36:20.440 finding ways to cover the damages. 36:20.440 --> 36:25.380 Later political theorists, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and 36:25.375 --> 36:30.305 Nietzsche would even develop a word for Hobbesian man. 36:30.309 --> 36:37.169 They would call him somewhat contemptuously the bourgeois. 36:37.170 --> 36:39.960 But nevertheless, Hobbes was remarkably 36:39.962 --> 36:43.712 successful in converting us to his point of view. 36:43.710 --> 36:48.420 The type of individual he tried to create, careful, 36:48.419 --> 36:51.339 self-interested, risk averse, 36:51.340 --> 36:55.060 this has become the dominant ethos of our 36:55.055 --> 36:57.185 civilization, has it not? 36:57.190 --> 37:01.970 We even have entire disciplines like economics and psychology 37:01.969 --> 37:05.789 and I dare even say modern political science that 37:05.793 --> 37:09.063 reinforced this view of human nature. 37:09.059 --> 37:13.239 We have all become, whether we choose to admit it 37:13.240 --> 37:15.070 or not, Hobbesians. 37:15.070 --> 37:19.440 And yet at the same time, and here is the paradox I 37:19.436 --> 37:24.676 think, even a Hobbesian society cannot entirely exist without 37:24.675 --> 37:30.255 some individuals who are willing to risk life and limb either for 37:30.264 --> 37:34.744 the sake of honor, for self-respect or even just 37:34.740 --> 37:38.680 from the sheer joy that comes from risk itself. 37:38.679 --> 37:43.049 Remember my example on Monday of Ralph Esposito. 37:43.050 --> 37:46.970 Why do people become firemen, policemen, soldiers, 37:46.966 --> 37:50.636 freedom fighters, all activities that cannot be 37:50.643 --> 37:54.323 explained in terms of self-interest alone? 37:54.320 --> 37:58.000 Will not even a Hobbesian society again require fire 37:57.999 --> 38:01.659 departments? And where will people come from 38:01.655 --> 38:05.915 that, if they all follow the psychology of fear and 38:05.922 --> 38:10.362 self-interest that Hobbes wants to instill in us? 38:10.360 --> 38:14.640 Hobbes regards these passions, what Plato called by the word 38:14.639 --> 38:18.309 thumos. Hobbes regarded these passions 38:18.311 --> 38:22.921 in many ways as barbaric, as uncivilized and warlike and 38:22.915 --> 38:25.505 to some degree he was right. 38:25.510 --> 38:29.350 But even the Hobbesian state, Hobbes admits himself, 38:29.346 --> 38:34.006 the Hobbesian state lives in the midst of a Hobbesian world; 38:34.010 --> 38:37.950 that is to say, the world of international 38:37.950 --> 38:43.910 relations is for Hobbes simply the state of nature at large. 38:43.909 --> 38:48.579 The Hobbesian state will always exist in a world of hostile 38:48.580 --> 38:51.800 other states, unregulated by some kind of 38:51.802 --> 38:54.932 higher law. States stand to one another on 38:54.927 --> 38:58.887 the world stage as individuals do in the condition of nature; 38:58.889 --> 39:01.689 that is to say, potential enemies with no 39:01.685 --> 39:05.735 higher authority by which to adjudicate their conflicts. 39:05.739 --> 39:09.969 And in such a world, even a sovereign state will be 39:09.968 --> 39:14.448 endangered either from other states or from groups and 39:14.451 --> 39:18.681 individuals devoted to terror and destruction. 39:18.680 --> 39:24.080 Think of September 11,2001. 39:24.079 --> 39:27.959 This is a problem that a profound political scientist by 39:27.962 --> 39:31.682 the name of Pierre Hassner, a French student of 39:31.683 --> 39:36.353 international politics, has described as the dialectic 39:36.352 --> 39:39.702 of the bourgeois and the barbarian, 39:39.699 --> 39:43.339 a struggle that is to say between the modern Hobbesian 39:43.340 --> 39:47.670 state with its largely pacified and satisfied citizen bodies and 39:47.667 --> 39:51.857 those pre-modern states or maybe in some ways even post-modern 39:51.856 --> 39:56.386 states that are prepared to use the instruments of violence, 39:56.389 --> 40:00.689 terror and suicide bombings to achieve their goals. 40:00.690 --> 40:03.100 A Hobbesian state, paradoxically, 40:03.101 --> 40:07.251 still requires from its citizens, men and women prepared 40:07.245 --> 40:11.535 to fight to risk everything in the defense of their way of 40:11.541 --> 40:14.651 life. But the Hobbesian point, 40:14.645 --> 40:19.575 the paradox being that the Hobbesian bourgeois cannot 40:19.576 --> 40:24.506 entirely dispense with the barbarian, even in its own 40:24.506 --> 40:28.926 midst. Can Hobbes explain this paradox? 40:28.930 --> 40:31.430 He seems to avoid it. 40:31.429 --> 40:35.939 This problem has been brought out I think brilliantly in a 40:35.936 --> 40:40.916 recent book by a man named James Bowman, a book called Honor: 40:40.916 --> 40:42.336 a History. 40:42.340 --> 40:43.430 He wrote a history of honor. 40:43.430 --> 40:46.540 40:46.539 --> 40:50.209 And here he points out that while affairs of honor, 40:50.208 --> 40:54.668 as they are quaintly called, have largely disappeared from 40:54.671 --> 40:58.801 advanced societies but honor still remains a consuming 40:58.803 --> 41:03.253 passion in many parts of the world today including for him 41:03.247 --> 41:06.207 most importantly the Middle East. 41:06.210 --> 41:10.990 Honor, in most societies, is thought to be not merely a 41:10.990 --> 41:14.530 personal quality, something like medieval 41:14.531 --> 41:18.251 chivalry but is above all group honor, 41:18.250 --> 41:22.280 the honor that surrounds the family, the extended clan, 41:22.279 --> 41:24.069 or the religious sect. 41:24.070 --> 41:28.630 An assault on one is an assault on all. 41:28.630 --> 41:32.010 This helps us to explain, for instance, 41:32.014 --> 41:36.914 why in so many cultures the concept of saving face is so 41:36.913 --> 41:40.253 important, even if to most modern 41:40.248 --> 41:43.948 Americans it seems relatively trivial. 41:43.949 --> 41:48.049 And one reason Bowman believes this is that we have such a 41:48.053 --> 41:52.593 difficult time in understanding other peoples and other cultures 41:52.588 --> 41:56.118 is that the very idea of defending one's honor has 41:56.116 --> 41:59.496 largely been devalued in the modern west. 41:59.500 --> 42:02.980 We tend to look at human behavior as a matter of 42:02.979 --> 42:07.129 providing rational incentives for human action while most 42:07.125 --> 42:10.715 people, in fact, are driven by a need 42:10.720 --> 42:15.130 for esteem and a desire to avoid humiliation. 42:15.130 --> 42:19.100 I remember, for example, during the Vietnam War when 42:19.104 --> 42:23.394 Richard Nixon spoke about achieving peace with honor, 42:23.389 --> 42:29.369 and this was largely mocked as a kind of ludicrous idea. 42:29.369 --> 42:33.899 Honor to so many of us sounds quaint, like an honor code or 42:33.895 --> 42:38.185 the Boy Scouts' code or something like that or something 42:38.187 --> 42:41.317 primitive, some kind of primitive ethic 42:41.317 --> 42:44.517 which we therefore don't really understand. 42:44.519 --> 42:50.239 We don't often see that it was in large parts Hobbes' efforts 42:50.240 --> 42:54.340 to discredit this kind of warrior virtue, 42:54.340 --> 42:59.970 this kind of virtue of honor that is so much a part of 42:59.971 --> 43:05.071 cultures that is also responsible for our current 43:05.072 --> 43:09.062 blindness. And that brings me to my final 43:09.063 --> 43:13.743 point about our Hobbesian civilization that conceals from 43:13.736 --> 43:16.486 us a very uncomfortable truth. 43:16.489 --> 43:19.559 Peace, the peace, security, and safety, 43:19.561 --> 43:23.441 what we might call our bourgeois freedoms that we 43:23.441 --> 43:25.561 enjoy, rest on the fact, 43:25.563 --> 43:29.973 on the uncomfortable fact, that there are still people who 43:29.967 --> 43:34.527 are willing to risk their lives for the sake of higher goals 43:34.525 --> 43:36.375 like honor or duty. 43:36.380 --> 43:40.460 Is that irrational for them to do so? 43:40.460 --> 43:43.980 Hobbes would believe it is. 43:43.980 --> 43:44.950 I think he would say yes. 43:44.949 --> 43:49.619 It doesn't make sense from a purely Hobbesian point of view 43:49.623 --> 43:54.303 that encourages us to think like rational actors interested 43:54.296 --> 43:57.676 mainly in safety and beating the odds. 43:57.679 --> 44:02.539 Hobbes, in many ways, finds himself in the position 44:02.538 --> 44:08.078 of the young military lawyer played in the following movie 44:08.077 --> 44:11.087 clip I'm going to show you. 44:11.090 --> 44:15.470 Professor Steven Smith: Okay, is the point made? 44:15.470 --> 44:16.370 The point is made. 44:16.369 --> 44:18.759 Then I will not even provide any further commentary. 44:18.760 --> 44:22.350 I only apologize that for some reason I couldn't get the 44:22.347 --> 44:22.997 picture.