Justice Vs. Hobbes: The State Of Justice

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Justice is perhaps the most formidable instrument that could be used in the pursuit of peace. It allows for people to rise above the state of mere nature and war with one another. However the fool believes that justice is a mere tool to be used to acquire power and rule at his own discretion. Can it be possible for anyone to be that virtuous? Or does power acquired in that manner actually come from somewhere else? Through justice it’s possible to produce a sovereign that is in harmony with the very people that constitute its power. The argument against the fool and for justice will proceed from this foundation.
When analyzing Hobbes case for justice, one must first establish the conditions where justice can even begin to exist at all. …show more content…

There is no justice when humans are living in the state of mere nature in “this war of every man against every man...nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong or just and unjust have there no place.”(188) These are the conditions that constitute mere nature. Justice has to battle all of human desire just to begin to establish a foothold in an arena where force and fraud are the supreme virtues.(188) Anything and everything is allowed in mere nature and absolute liberty “without impediment”(189) is used accordingly, as ones own reason dictates. When Human desires and aversions are pursued for only self preservation this puts us in a state of perpetual war with one another on an individual level, each of us doing whatever is necessary to survive. Therefore to establish justice is to first institute laws and government, but before this can be done you have to decide who or what entity has the right to do so? How is this power transferred to them? And at what …show more content…

According to Hobbes the fool believes that if it is our duty to self preserve at any cost then reason should dictate that breaking of laws for our own benefit should not be thought of as injustice. (203) Therefore the fool seeks to use his virtue to acquire power after power in accordance with Hobbes general inclination of all mankind to establish himself as the sovereign. He does this by manipulating the notions of justice for his own purposes and using violence whenever it suits him, but especially when taking the “power of other men” (203-204). There is no doubt that the convention of justice and injustice can be a powerful concept, yet that doesn 't make its existence anymore real. Justice for the fool is just a means to obtain or maintain ones own power not an end in

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