Leviathan by Hobbes

Even though men are unequal physically, there is some equality when it comes to the mind. Every person thinks of him or her as being wiser than the other hence every person is content with their share of wisdom. This contention provides evidence of equality. However, men are in a constant state of war against each other; war not just in the literal sense of the word. It is only nature for people to fight for the things they desire.

There are three main reasons why people fight, the first being competition, second being diffidence, for safety and the third being glory, for reputation. There was constant chaos and fighting before the advent of the civil society. In order to get rid of this chaos laws were formed. The first natural law served the purpose of removing fear which was instilled in people; hence the purpose of the first law was to ensure peace. However because of laws men will not posses their complete natural right to liberty. It can be said that these rights have been exchanged for the safety of people. The first part of the law is that everyone has to right to ensure and pursue peace and the second part states that people have the right to defend themselves. It is based on the intrinsic desire of human beings to want peace and save their own lives. The second law states that if men have a right to do anything that they like, they will always be in a state of war. Men will have to renounce this right in order to ensure safety. Contract is the “mutual transferring of right”.

This leads us to the third law which says that to keep peace contracts need to be formed, maintained and upheld. A contract has to be mutual, when there is only one party transferring the right it can not be said to be a contract, it could be something else like a gift. There are certain presuppositions of a contract i.e. that words are spoken with due consideration of what they signify and that words of the future constitute a promise. People are obliged to obey the contracts and keep their promises. The meaning of the words can be inferred from their use. By performing one’s own part of the contract, one merits the due that he should receive by virtue of the contract. Contracts differ from a free gift. In the case of a free gift one can only merit something by virtue of the generosity of the giver, however, in contract you merit by virtue of your own power of the contractor’s need.

Men are in a constant state of war so words can not be trusted hence by performing one’s side of the contract one can not ensure that the other will also comply with the terms of the contract hence civil society is needed. The civil society has the power to force people to adhere to the contract, and perform them accordingly. There are only 2 ways of being free from a covenant, either you perform it or are forgiven by a retransferring of a right. A new covenant makes the old one void. A covenant to defend one from force by force is also void. An oath is just formal words of speech for the purpose of swearing, they add nothing to a covenant, which by itself is already binding.