Expert: Conrad T. Jalowski - 5/7/2011

Question
The relationship between natural right and natural law according to Hobbes Thomas and John Locke

Answer
Hello and good day.

(I. Classical Lex Naturalis "Law of Nature")

Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan or On the Civil and Ecclesiastical Commonwealth departed from the Classical and Medieval viewpoints of natural law. For example, in the Ciceronian concept of lex naturalis, the individual's role within civil society is to perpetuate the existence of the polity and to preserve the goodness and tranquillity of the community. For Marcus Tullius Cicero, this natural law derived from God and is universal, all-encompassing, indissoluble, immutable and perpetual. As Cicero remarked, this divinely bestowed law transcended the politics of any particular city, whether Rome or Athens, and binded together the different populations and multitudinous cultures of the world under a single framework. In the Ciceronian lex naturalis, positive law or man-made law is subsumed into this natural law. According to Cicero, man has congregated together under the guidance of this universal law and strove to exist in the community in harmony, concord, happiness and peace.

(II. The Hobbesian State of Nature)

Thomas Hobbes developed a contractualist theory in which individuals form together so as to emerge from the anguish, chaos and anarchy of the pre-political or natural/savage state. For Hobbes, man's natural proclivity is to violence and savagery. In his natural state, man is a vulgar, brutish and barbaric animal that exists in a state of perpetual discord, enmity and strife. In the Hobbesian state of Nature, man is locked in a bitter conflict of the one against all. The purpose of the civil state is to dispel the chaos and disorder of the state of Nature and to curb the licentiousness and wickedness of man. Natural law is then embodied within the will of the Hobbesian autocrat who guarantees the preservation of the civil order and maintains the stability and equilibrium of the state. In turn, the individual surrenders its autonomy and submits to the will of the Hobbesian monarch. However, the leviathan is a collective monstrosity: the sovereign maintains a social contract with the common herd of man and is required to mantain the stability of the state. A descent into the anarchy and turmoil of the pre-political state would result in the toppling of the leviathan which exists as an artificial construct composed of both the sovereign and the rabble. For Thomas Hobbes, individuals are binded together due to an overwhelming desire for safety and order at the expense of their own autonomy. In the Hobbesian state of Nature, individuals possess anarchic freedom but exist as wild and uncontrollable brutes that freely indulge in their wicked and insatiable appetites. In such a setting, the purpose of the civil state is to tame man, assuage his appetites and stymie his primitive impulses.