Hobbes on Injustice

In the "condition of mere nature"

"The desires, and other passions of men, are in themselves no sin. No more are the actions, that proceed from those passions, till they know a law that forbids them: which till laws be made they cannot know ..." (IP3 574a)

In the "condition of mere nature"

"nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law: where no law, no injustice. ... It is consequent also to the same condition, that there can be no propriety, no dominion, no mine and thine distinct ..." (IP3 574b)

"... in such a condition, every man has a right to every thing, even to one another's body." (IP3 575b)


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 19 September 2004