On The Philosophical Basis Of Hobbes' Natural Law Theory

In Hobbes’ s philosophy,the laws of nature are moral laws which derived from the theory of ‘the state of nature’.To understand it we must start with Hobbes’ views of men,there is a principle well known to all men by experience and which everyone admits,Hobbes call it men’s natural disposition.It says if people are not restrained by fear of a common power,they will distrust and fear each other,each man rightly may and necessarily will look out for himself from his own resources.Which reflected two methods of Hobbes’ philosophy,one induced by experiences,and this method is also a way of self-reflection,its object of study is men’s hearts not men’s action.While the other is reasoning.Hobbes’ doctrine of passions is derived from the first one,which bases on the similitude of thoughts and passions of one man to another’s.For the second method,it included the doctrine of sensation and imagination that based on the principle of mechanism.According to the mechanism principle,Hobbes can interpret human’s passions as motion.Hobbes’ view of nature also has two aspects,the first is passions as human’s nature,the other is nature as an art,which imitate God make and governs the world,human can make and govern an artificial animal.In this regard,the philosophical foundation of Hobbes’ s natural law theory are the theory of sensation and moral psychology with passion as its core.