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