Hobbes etc.

Ken Hanly khanly at mb.sympatico.ca
Wed Mar 22 19:36:36 PST 2000


Just for starters Gauthier could have noticed that there is no contractual relationship of subjects with the sovereign. It is a free gift. The contract is only between subjects. There are no contractual obligations owed by the soveregin subjects although there is some sort of obligation for the sovereign to preserve peace. The key relationship of citizens to sovereign is thus non-contractual but it is certainly free and uncoerced. It would be nice if Gauthier had read Hobbes.

Cheers, Ken Hanly

Sam Pawlett wrote:


>
> "Hobbes offers the most unified and compelling psychological portrayal
> of economic man...Economic man is a radical contractarian in that all of
> his free or non-coercive interpersonal relationships are contractual.
> For him, voluntary social relationships require a rationale; contract
> provides it. The idea underlying contract, that persons who take
> no interest in one another's interests may nevertheless be able to
> interact in a mutually advantageous manner,is,as we have noted,one of
> the great liberating ideas in human history, freeing persons from the
> requirement that they be affectively dependent on their fellows. But
> economic man carries this liberation to the full extreme; his
> exclusively asocial motivation precludes voluntary non-contractual
> interpersonal relationships. He is not only freed from compulsory
> affective dependence; he is incapable of voluntary affection." MBA,p310.
>
> > No, it is not. the classic 2 person PD involves two self interested persons (only) who will never again interact, who are seperated and unable to communicate on strategy, and whose options are ranked in a certain way that generates the puzzle. Hobbes has the selfish motivations and the ranking, but that is all. the rest of the structure is lacking.
> >
>
> In Hobbes case, it need not be a two person game. The problem of social
> order is a collective action problem requiring more than two players.
> But as Gauthier says, an iterated pd is too easy solve.
>
> Sam Pawlett



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