Book contents
- The Necessity of Nature
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
- The Necessity of Nature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A Christian Science
- 2 Hobbes’s Doctrine of Necessity
- 3 Necessities, Natural Rights and Sovereignty in Leviathan
- 4 Reformers on the Necessary Knowledge
- 5 Necessity, Free Will and Conscience
- 6 The Grand Business of Nature
- 7 Robert Boyle, the Empire over Nature
- 8 Locke’s Early Writings
- 9 Medicine, Oeconomy and Needs
- 10 Money and the Doctrine of Necessities
- 11 The Scientification of Money
- 12 The Doctrine of Necessities and the (Public) Good
- Conclusions
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
3 - Necessities, Natural Rights and Sovereignty in Leviathan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2023
- The Necessity of Nature
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
- The Necessity of Nature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A Christian Science
- 2 Hobbes’s Doctrine of Necessity
- 3 Necessities, Natural Rights and Sovereignty in Leviathan
- 4 Reformers on the Necessary Knowledge
- 5 Necessity, Free Will and Conscience
- 6 The Grand Business of Nature
- 7 Robert Boyle, the Empire over Nature
- 8 Locke’s Early Writings
- 9 Medicine, Oeconomy and Needs
- 10 Money and the Doctrine of Necessities
- 11 The Scientification of Money
- 12 The Doctrine of Necessities and the (Public) Good
- Conclusions
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
Summary
The implications for morality and natural law of Hobbes’s skilful employment of Neoplatonist metaphysics such as Avicenna’s, entailing a sharp division between the human soul and the human body, are spelled out in Chapter 3. This shows that the concept of need, rather than right is central to Hobbes’s natural law and political theory. Judgements concerning needs, including the needs of others, represent a constant source of legitimacy for acting in the state of nature and in the commonwealth. A thorough analysis of the doctrine of necessity in Leviathan, Hobbes’s masterpiece, follows. The superior and absolute sovereignty that Leviathan evaluates and proposes is the true and scientific concept of sovereignty in a commonwealth, by reference to the needs of human nature and also in accordance with divine command. Hobbes exploits his doctrine of metaphysics of necessity to explain that that type of absolute sovereignty is compatible with freedom; after all, each free act of every human being is necessary in the sense of a metaphysics of necessity.
Keywords
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- The Necessity of NatureGod, Science and Money in 17th Century English Law of Nature, pp. 76 - 104Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023