Hobbes and Hume

[methylatedghosts]

Howdy all,

I'll start by saying that this year I'm taking a second-year paper at Otago University called "Moral political philosphy - Hobbes, Hume and their critics"

Now, I don't know all that much about Hobbes and Humes, and we've only really started by focusing on Hobbes philosophy of the State of Nature, and how people's lives would be "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"

So, tell me all that you wonderful people know about Hobbes and Hume and their philosophies in the hope that I may learn something and slaughter the exams!!


acutally, I shuold probably include a question......

but it is a very broad subject.....

ok, to start us off I'll take a question from todays class

Is Hobbes a rule-egoist? Is this a defensible position? Discuss with reference to Kavka ch. 9 and Shaver ed. (1999) Hobbes, essays 1, 2, 3 and 10, by Gauthier, Kavka, Hampton and Curly respectively

Ok, thats a direct question quote, but you don't necessarily need to cite those references, but IF you do, can you please note that? Just so I know.

I can post 2 questions a week if you people would like me to. Might lead to alot of fun debatingszzsness. enjoy

[QED]

Ha! Trying to get us to do your homework for you eh? I certainly won't be of any use - I would just head over to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for any reference material on Hobbes or Hume. I was pleased to hear that the new £20 Bank Note will feature a picture of Adam Smith, one of Hume's closest friends. A small consolation for the apparently politically sanctioned moves towards creationism in the UK's new City Academy schemes Good luck with your learnin'

[Furrowed Brow]

Hi methylatedghosts

Well its been a while since I looked at Hobbes or Hume in any detail. As I type this I have Hobbes Leviathan , and Hume’s Enquires concerning…. and his Treatise of Human Nature on my desk. And I realise I can’t really remember much of what’s in them.

I seem to remember Hobbes being very pleased and self satisfied. Basically his argument that comes to the rather brown nosing conclusion that we need a head of state/king. Which much pleased Charles II.

I read Rousseau in conjunction with Hobbes. The contrast is quite neat. Rousseau believed in the noble savage. This was a time when stories of native Americans living in harmony with nature was seeping into Europe. Rousseau saw this as the preferred state of humans. That is was society that was the corruption of man. Whilst Hobbes believed the inverse to be true. That people needed society to be civilised, and that without a state man was a brute.

Or it went something like that.

[Greatest I Am]

I think that we like to live in an ordered environment.
Our forefathers started with ten rules or laws to follow and we have progressed?? to where we now have thousands of rules to follow. Progress??

In any ordered system a leader of some kind is required.

Even in this country, I think that a King would serve us better than our current system of politics.

A world government will hopefully lead to this eventual situation.

Regards
DL

[Confused]

Ha! Trying to get us to do your homework for you eh? I certainly won't be of any use - I would just head over to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for any reference material on Hobbes or Hume. I was pleased to hear that the new £20 Bank Note will feature a picture of Adam Smith, one of Hume's closest friends. A small consolation for the apparently politically sanctioned moves towards creationism in the UK's new City Academy schemes Good luck with your learnin'

Rolling in laughter. I would have to concur with QED here.

[Goat]

Ha! Trying to get us to do your homework for you eh? I certainly won't be of any use - I would just head over to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for any reference material on Hobbes or Hume. I was pleased to hear that the new £20 Bank Note will feature a picture of Adam Smith, one of Hume's closest friends. A small consolation for the apparently politically sanctioned moves towards creationism in the UK's new City Academy schemes Good luck with your learnin'

hobbss and hume are not my favorite combination.

I much prefer Calvin and Hobbes.

[methylatedghosts]

hobbss and hume are not my favorite combination.

I much prefer Calvin and Hobbes.

Haha fair enough =P

[methylatedghosts]

Ha! Trying to get us to do your homework for you eh? I certainly won't be of any use - I would just head over to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for any reference material on Hobbes or Hume. I was pleased to hear that the new £20 Bank Note will feature a picture of Adam Smith, one of Hume's closest friends. A small consolation for the apparently politically sanctioned moves towards creationism in the UK's new City Academy schemes Good luck with your learnin'

No, not homework. This is stuff we've already discussed in class, but because we only have around 25 students, there isn't a huge variety of viewpoints. I was hoping to weed out a few more things we hadn't thought about =D

[methylatedghosts]

I think that we like to live in an ordered environment.
Our forefathers started with ten rules or laws to follow and we have progressed?? to where we now have thousands of rules to follow. Progress??

In any ordered system a leader of some kind is required.

Even in this country, I think that a King would serve us better than our current system of politics.

A world government will hopefully lead to this eventual situation.

Regards
DL

I have to agree with you to some degree.

An exercise we did in class was imagine a bunch of pandas living in a small area, in a state of nature relative to each other, and we kept adding pressures and things until we decided it be enough that they were living in a war of all against all.

I agree that a world government would be beneficial to everyone. I hope that someday this may be the case.

But, I have to propose, that in the case of a state of nature, size does matter... In a flat situation, 5 people living in the same house, that don't know each other to begin with, generally don't exist in a war of all against all.

Also, I think that the view of a state of nature necessarily turning out into a state of war, shows a very primitive society. I believe that in this moment, there is enough resources in the world for everyone to have what they need - and more. A primitive society doesn't see this, and a certain paranoia of "glory seekers" as Hobbes put it, will drive to war. A more advanced society will realise, that glory seeking iis pointless. That warring with each other is pointless. It is less beneficial than what it is supposed to do. Hobbes proposed that an individual with reason and logic would war against other, because he would reason that others could be glory seekers, even though he himself is not. I propose that a more advanced being, with reason and logic, would reason that warring against another is pointless, and not worth the effort, and he would benefit more by sharing what he had with another, thus eliminating the need for a life that is "nasty, poor, brutish and short"


.........stand by, more to come later.

[4gold]

Howdy all,

I'll start by saying that this year I'm taking a second-year paper at Otago University called "Moral political philosphy - Hobbes, Hume and their critics"

Now, I don't know all that much about Hobbes and Humes, and we've only really started by focusing on Hobbes philosophy of the State of Nature, and how people's lives would be "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short"

So, tell me all that you wonderful people know about Hobbes and Hume and their philosophies in the hope that I may learn something and slaughter the exams!!


acutally, I shuold probably include a question......

but it is a very broad subject.....

ok, to start us off I'll take a question from todays class

Is Hobbes a rule-egoist? Is this a defensible position? Discuss with reference to Kavka ch. 9 and Shaver ed. (1999) Hobbes, essays 1, 2, 3 and 10, by Gauthier, Kavka, Hampton and Curly respectively

Ok, thats a direct question quote, but you don't necessarily need to cite those references, but IF you do, can you please note that? Just so I know.

I can post 2 questions a week if you people would like me to. Might lead to alot of fun debatingszzsness. enjoy

This won't score you any higher on your test, but the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes was named after John Calvin, probably because Calvin was, like Hume, a compatibilist, while Hobbes was more of a free will philosopher.