Hobbes vs Plato on Justice essays

Hobbes vs Plato on Justice essays Plato on Hobbes view of justice According to Hobbes, justice must be defined as nothing more than abiding by the law. However, from Platos point of view, this notion of justice is not adequate. Regards to human nature, Hobbes is very pessimistic, while Plato is less so. Based on different views on how the society should be formed, Plato gives different accounts of Justice than Hobbes. This difference will become clear once we learn Hobbes reasoning on his definition of Justice as well as Platos opinions on the issues related to that reasoning. To define justice, Hobbes traces down to the nature of human being. In Hobbes view, the nature of human being is selfish and vain. This nature makes people compete with each other, distrust each other and moreover lust for fame. Therefore, in the state of nature, a war of all against all is unavoidable and the life of man is nothing but tragic. To achieve peace, people make a contract all together to lay down their rights over others. This contract could last only when all members of the contract abide by it. It requires a commonwealth to enforce the performance of the covenant. Justice from a functional point of view then comes into being: it is just abiding by the law. If someone breaks the contract, he will be accused as injustice. First, Hobbes asserts that man is just matter in motion. This material man has no interest other than the preservation and promotion of his own existence. The good is what is in his private interest. Typically, Hobbes verifies three principle desires and passions of man: to gain properties, to secure himself and to glean reputation. It is interesting that Hobbes proposes equality of man as regard to the body and mind. His argument for this equality as regard to the body lies in the fact that the weakest has enough power to kill the strongest. As for mind, it is only because of the distance of other mens wits that makes p...