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Articles

Hobbes on Good and Evil

Craig Ross on how a philosopher with few illusions made a mistake.

Beating up senior citizens while high on drugs may be good, and giving to charity may be evil. Or at least, so Thomas Hobbes would seem to have to admit. Hobbes’ Leviathan has been described as perhaps the only masterpiece of political philosophy written in English. While I think this is true, Hobbes’ argument does face some difficulties.

Good and Evil

For Hobbes the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are synonyms of ‘desired’ and ‘hated’.

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