Thomas Hobbes' Response to the Fool: Justice and Magnanimity

Andrew J. Corsa

Corpus ID: 159242340

Thomas Hobbes' Response to the Fool: Justice and Magnanimity

@inproceedings{Corsa2011ThomasHR,
  title={Thomas Hobbes' Response to the Fool: Justice and Magnanimity},
  author={Andrew J. Corsa},
  year={2011}
}

Andrew J. Corsa

Published 2011

Philosophy

I focus on Thomas Hobbes’ response to the moral skeptic – the Fool – who claims it is sometimes reasonable to break valid covenants (contracts). The Fool maintains that, in some circumstances, violating a covenant will be in a person’s best self-interest, and it will be reasonable to violate when it is. I interpret Hobbes to respond that it will never be reasonable for anyone to break a valid covenant, even in the state of nature (prior to society). In fact, everyone is obliged to keep all of… CONTINUE READING

View PDF