sort of rule ethical egoist or deontologist who defines the just as the will
of the sovereign.
Why do you think H is an ethical egoist? Surely he is a sort of psychological egoist, although of a peculiar sort, since he acknowledges the importance of glory as a motivation, and glory as a motive can lead to what most people would call self-sacrifice to gain a reputation for honor. (Don Herzog thinks that glory is Hobbes' real bugaboo, that he views the desire for glory as the cause of the disorders he feared, and he thiks the sov's main job is replacing glory with more humble bourgeois avarice.)
But what is the textual evidence that he thinks we ought only to seek our own gain? In fact, Hobbes' 2d law lf nature is that when peace and security men will be willing to law down their natural (pre social) right to all things (L, ch. 14). Likewise, his famous discussion of motivation in ch. 11 posits three main motives: restlress desire for power, 2) love of contention from cpompetition, and 3) civil obedience from love of ease and fear of death or wounds.
Now, this jus goes to the sort of psychological egoist he is, but he certainly thinks we have the equipment not to "defect" (as the decision theorists say), and, in view of the 2d law of nature, he seems to suggest that we morally should use it. Not, of course in all circumstances, for example not in the state of war, but certainly if the sov will assure that others will do likewise. Love of ease as well as fear of death then counsel against my upsetiing the order that brings me such advantages.
As to your claim that justice is the will of the sov, i do not find that in Hobbes. See ch. 15, of the laws of nature, where H says that justice is pretty much what all the pioius writers say, giing each his own, do unto others, etc. But, he says, these laws bind on in foro interno, that is, you know they're right, but won;t act on them outside civil society, which provides the foro externo that allows us to act on them by assuming that someone who does will not be blindsided by some egoist.
Maybe you are confusing justice with law. Hobbes does think that law is the command of the sov. Ch. 26. But of course, not being an idiot, he knows that not all laws are just. He distinguishes absolutely clearly between the laws of the commonwealth and the laws of nature. see ibid.
--jks