PHI 3670, Spring 2004

Review for Test 2 – Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Kant

This set of questions is meant for review only. The content of some questions may not appear on the test. Some questions on the test may not be specifically addressed by these review questions.

Thomas Hobbes:

Hobbes is the first systematic modern philosopher of ethics and political theory. What are some of the fundamental differences between ancient/medieval and modern philosophy’s conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state (community) and the ability of the individual to know, as well as the place of the individual in the moral universe?

The relationship between Hobbes’s mechanistic materialism and his conceptions of good and evil prior to the creation of a state

Natural human equality – the ways it manifests itself

The meaning of the claim that the life of man is characterized by a “restless and perpetual desire for power after power that ceases only in death”

State of Nature and State of War

Causes of Quarrel

That human beings in the natural condition are not immoral or “bad”

The laws of nature, how they are discovered. The first through third laws of nature

In one sense, Hobbes’s sovereign is absolute – in another sense, his conception of the creation of government is thoroughly one in which we can rest assured that government exists by the consent of the governed. How are absolute sovereignty and the notion that government exists by the consent of the governed reconcilable?

Rand and Hobbes were both egoists, but of different kinds. What are those kinds? What would Hobbes have said, in your considered view, to Rand’s arguments in favor of ethical egoism? Defend your answer.

What are the three equalities that exist in the state of nature?
What are the causes of quarrel?
What is the difference between the state of nature and the state of war?
What does it mean when Hobbes claims that in the state of nature, everyone has a right to everything?
Is it the case that Hobbes claims that the behavior of people in the state of nature is sinful?  Why?
How are morality and peace attained?  How are the laws of nature recognized?  What is the primary passion that leads us to peace?  What are the three passions that lead to peace?
What is the distinction between a right of nature and a law of nature?
What are Hobbes' first, second, and third laws of nature, and how are they related?
Why does Hobbes argue for absolute government?
What is a social contract?

John Locke:

Locke’s law of nature

Concepts in Hobbes and Locke that are very similar, but very clearly different in their manifestations and meanings such as state of nature, state of war, Law of Nature, the status of morality prior to the creation of the state, the justification or creation of property, and the status of the concept that everyone has a right to everything.

Hobbes and Locke are contractarians. What is contractarian ethics?

How does Locke describe the state of nature?  How does he describe the state of war?
What is Locke's law of nature?  How is it different from Hobbes' fundamental law of nature?
How does Locke explain the origin and nature of property in the state of nature?
According to Locke, for what reason does government exist?
Why, according to Locke, must government power be limited?
In Locke's political theory, what is our most basic duty with respect to others?
What are the two main reasons offered by Locke to show that it would be impractical and unreasonable to establish absolute government?
What is Locke's general view of human nature?  How does it differ from that of Hobbes?

David Hume:

For Hume, what is the function of reason in the realm of ethics? What is the function of emotion?

According to Hume, what are the only things that count as objects of knowledge? Why is it the case that ethical claims are not, on this account, objects of knowledge?

David Hume claimed that reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions. What does that mean? Do you agree with it? Why?

What is the difference between normative ethics and meta-ethics?

Immanuel Kant:

How does Kant explain the notion that the first and second formulations of the categorical imperative are essentially the same? Do you agree with that claim?

What is the ultimate principle or rule of morality in Kant's ethical theory?
Why is that rule or principle an ultimate rule?
What are the two (there are actually three, but we are dealing only with the first two) formulations of the Categorical Imperative?  What do they mean?  How do they apply to Kant's own examples of the lying promise, suicide, developing talents, and the duty we have to be beneficent?  What about other examples that you might derive for yourself?
What does it mean to say that Kant's ethical theory is deontological?  What does it mean to say that Mill's ethical theory is teleological?
What is duty, according to Kant?
What is the only thing good without qualification?  Why is this the case?
What is the difference between a categorical imperative and a hypothetical imperative, and why is it that Kant claims that the hypothetical imperative cannot serve as the foundation of a true moral system?
How does Kant justify the claim that nature intended reason to be the ruler of the will?