Hobbes, Day II

10 Questions to guide your reading:

1) On Wednesday, we talked about the "catch-22" that rational people in the state of nature are in--they want to make an agreement to get out of the state of nature, but because they are in a state of nature, agreements (contracts,covenants) are not enforcable. How do they construct a contract that solves this paradox?
2) What do we agree to give up when we enter into a social contract? Why do we have to give up so much? Why are we willing to give up so much?
3) Hobbes does not appear to have all that much to say about the qualities of leadership or the skills a good sovereign should have. Why isn't this a bigger issue for him?
4) Now that you have read about the Hobbesian social contract, think about chapter 16 again. Why/how is his concept of "artificial persons" connected to his conception of sovereignty?
5) Hobbes tells us that sovereigns by conquest are just as valid as sovereigns by contract. This would seem to undermine his social contract theory. Does it? How can this be?
6) The social contract is a moment of voluntary consent. However, Hobbes also allows for several forms of tacit consent. Why is this?
7) According to the logic of Hobbes' argument, can a sovereign conscript citizens (that is, forcibly send them into a military conflict)? Think of one Hobbesian argument for and against conscriptions.
8) Of the three potential kinds of commonwealth, why does Hobbes prefer monarchy?
9) How does Hobbes describe the liberty of subjects? Why is Hobbes unconcerned that we give all our rights and freedoms (except one) up when we join a commonwealth?
10) What happens when a commonwealth becomes so weak that it is, in Hobbes' terminology, "dissolved"? How can we tell if a commonwealth has been dissolved?