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Single Idea 7573

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 2. The Law / d. Legal positivism ]

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.

The 39 ideas from 'Leviathan'

8014 Resolve a complex into simple elements, then reconstruct the complex by using them [Hobbes, by MacIntyre]
5337 For Hobbes the Golden Rule concerns not doing things, whereas Jesus encourages active love [Hobbes, by Flanagan]
19764 Hobbes attributed to savages the passions which arise in a law-bound society [Hobbes, by Rousseau]
20566 Hobbes says the people voluntarily give up their sovereignty, in a contract with a ruler [Hobbes, by Oksala]
20485 Hobbes says people are roughly equal; Locke says there is no right to impose inequality [Hobbes, by Wolff,J]
20484 We should obey the laws of nature, provided other people are also obeying them [Hobbes, by Wolff,J]
7573 The legal positivism of Hobbes said law is just formal or procedural [Hobbes, by Jolley]
2356 Appearance and reality can be separated by mirrors and echoes [Hobbes]
2357 Dreams must be false because they seem absurd, but dreams don't see waking as absurd [Hobbes]
2358 Freedom is absence of opposition to action; the idea of 'free will' is absurd [Hobbes]
2359 Desire and love are the same, but in the desire the object is absent, and in love it is present [Hobbes]
2362 The will is just the last appetite before action [Hobbes]
2363 Reason is usually general, but deliberation is of particulars [Hobbes]
2360 'Good' is just what we desire, and 'Evil' what we hate [Hobbes]
2361 If fear of unknown powers is legal it is religion, if it is illegal it is superstition [Hobbes]
2364 Causation is only observation of similar events following each other, with nothing visible in between [Hobbes]
2365 Religion is built on ignorance and misinterpretation of what is unknown or frightening [Hobbes]
2366 There is not enough difference between people for one to claim more benefit than another [Hobbes]
2367 In time of war the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short [Hobbes]
2368 Men's natural desires are no sin, and neither are their actions, until law makes it so [Hobbes]
2370 All voluntary acts aim at some good for the doer [Hobbes]
2371 A contract is a mutual transfer of rights [Hobbes]
2374 In the violent state of nature, the merest suspicion is enough to justify breaking a contract [Hobbes]
2372 The person who performs first in a contract is said to 'merit' the return, and is owed it [Hobbes]
2375 Suspicion will not destroy a contract, if there is a common power to enforce it [Hobbes]
2373 The first performer in a contract is handing himself over to an enemy [Hobbes]
2369 If we seek peace and defend ourselves, we must compromise on our rights [Hobbes]
2378 Belief in an afterlife is based on poorly founded gossip [Hobbes]
2383 Virtues are a means to peaceful, sociable and comfortable living [Hobbes]
2376 Injustice is the failure to keep a contract, and justice is the constant will to give what is owed [Hobbes]
2377 No one who admitted to not keeping contracts could ever be accepted as a citizen [Hobbes]
2379 If there is a good reason for breaking a contract, the same reason should have stopped the making of it [Hobbes]
2382 Someone who keeps all his contracts when others are breaking them is making himself a prey to others [Hobbes]
2380 Punishment should only be for reform or deterrence [Hobbes]
23987 The 'simple passions' are appetite, desire, love, aversion, hate, joy, and grief [Hobbes, by Goldie]
6214 Liberty and necessity are consistent, as when water freely flows, by necessity [Hobbes]
7559 Every part of the universe is body, and non-body is not part of it [Hobbes]
8015 Hobbes wants a contract to found morality, but shared values are needed to make a contract [MacIntyre on Hobbes]
8016 Fear of sanctions is the only motive for acceptance of authority that Hobbes can think of [MacIntyre on Hobbes]