Business and War

Hobbes did not think that business was war. In fact, business is impossible in a state of war.

"In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (p.72).

Hobbes, Equality, and War

This is just a short, but extremely important point. As some of your classmates have pointed out – equality and threats to life drive Hobbes’ argument. In fact, please note, that for Hobbes equality really means equal ability to contend by battle. By which he means the equal ability of people to kill each other. As he points out, even the strongest amongst us must sleep.

We are equal, because we can kill each other. This is why we ultimately cannot trust each other (our diffidence). We all know this. Each person then is a potential threat where there is no state, government, and law. To preserve our own lives we must respond to this threat. We are always ready to defend ourselves or attack as we see fit. It is this state of constantly being ready to fight that is WAR. Think of the Cold War. Fighting is war too, but it is included in that definition.

Therefore, I offer, that Hobbes’ state of war is not simply about conflicts of self-interest. It is conflicts of self-interest that may reasonably be solved by battle that includes attempting to kill your opponent.

I make this point to present the possibility that this is not what we mean by business competition.

BK

The Purpose of Hobbes

Many may be wondering what the purpose of Hobbes is here. After all, it can be a strange reading. The purpose is to establish a baseline and encounter certain concepts that we will find again and again.

I) The baseline I want to focus is on, is what Hobbes calls “war”. What is it? Why is it? How can it be avoided?

II) The central concepts Hobbes, and business, uses are: liberty, rights, contract, and justice. These are just to name a few.

Now you perhaps can see, or already did, the juxtaposition. People use the languages of both I and II to talk about business. Are we being realistic? Are we being sloppy?

More to come ....

BK

New Blog

Hell all.

This is a new Blog to communicate with students from LIS 460 Philosophy of Business. I will post here:

1) FAQs that will serve students from both sections.

2) Current events and issues relevant to Philosophy of Business.

3) Running commentary on our readings.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve this blog, please email me and let me know.

Bill