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Full Idea
Hobbes was one of the first to propose the view known as 'legal positivism' - that the criterion for deciding whether a rule is a genuine law is entirely formal or procedural
Gist of Idea
The legal positivism of Hobbes said law is just formal or procedural
Source
report of Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan [1651]) by Nicholas Jolley - Leibniz Ch.7
Book Ref
Jolley,Nicholas: 'Leibniz' [Routledge 2005], p.195
A Reaction
This was opposed to the tradition of natural law, deriving from Aquinas. It is part of a picture of values draining out of the world as science comes to dominate. The is/ought distinction is its culmination. Power replaces virtue, and Thrasymachus wins.
| 7403 | Grotius ignored elaborate natural law theories, preferring a basic right of self-preservation [Grotius, by Tuck] |
| 7573 | The legal positivism of Hobbes said law is just formal or procedural [Hobbes, by Jolley] |
| 20930 | The existence of law is one thing, its merits and demerits another [Austin,J] |
| 20931 | Hart replaced positivism with the democratic requirement of the people's acceptance [Hart,HLA, by Zimmermann,J] |
| 7592 | For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content [Scruton] |
| 20492 | Following some laws is not a moral matter; trivial traffic rules, for example [Wolff,J] |