Tom Sorell

The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes

1. A summary biography of Hobbes Noel Malcolm 2. Hobbess scheme of the sciences Tom Sorell 3. First philosophy and the foundations of knowledge Yves Charles Zarka 4. Hobbes and the method of natural science Douglas Jesseph 5. Hobbes and mathematics Hardy Grant 6. Hobbes on light and vision Jan Prins 7. Hobbess psychology Bernard Gert 8. Hobbess moral philosophy Richard Tuck 9. Hobbess political philosophy Alan Ryan 10. Lofty science and local politics Johann Sommerville 11. Hobbes on law M. M. Goldsmith 12. History in Hobbess thought Luc Borot 13. Hobbes on rhetoric Victoria Silver 14. Hobbes on religion Patricia Springborg.

Hobbes's political philosophy

This chapter discusses some large questions in Hobbess political philosophy. My aim is to identify what, if anything, Hobbes thought to be the central problem, or problems, of politics and to link the answer to an account of why the state of nature is so intolerable, of how we may leave it, and whether the manner of our leaving is well explained by Hobbes. I then turn to the implications for Hobbess account of the rights and duties of the sovereign, and then to the contentions issue of the subjects right, in extremis, to reject his sovereign and rebel. In the course of that discussion, I also consider Hobbess account of the nature of punishment and the question whether his two rather different accounts are not one too many. In answering these questions, I shall say something about Hobbess conception of the law of nature, his theory of political obligation, and the role (or lack of a role) of religious belief in his political system. I say a little about Hobbess account of liberty and link its oddities to the politics of his own day.

The customer is not always right

Consumers can sustain markets that are morally questionable. They can make immoral or morally suspect demands of individual businesses, especially small businesses. Even when they do not, the costs to firms of consumer protection can sometimes drive them to ruin. This paper presents cases where deference to the consumer is variously unwarranted, cases that may prompt second thoughts about some kinds of consumerism.

Descartes' Meditations: Background Source Materials

Introduction 1. That nothing is known Francisco Sanches 2. The promotion of mathematics Christopher Clavius 3. Dialectic Petrus Ramus 4. Metaphysical disputations Francisco Suarez 5. Wisdom Pierre Charron 6. A compendium of philosophy in four parts Eustachius a Sancto Paulo 7. Corpus of philosophy Scipion Dupleix 8. The use of reason: the impiety of the deists: the truth of the sciences Marin Mersenne 9. Unorthodox essays against the Aristotelians Pierre Gassendi 10. The two truths: the immortality of the soul Jean de Silhon 11. Dialogue on the diversity of religions: little skeptical treatise Francois de La Mothe le Vayer 12. Universal science Charles Sorel 13. That God exists Jean-Baptiste Morin Appendix: condemnations of Cartesianism Notes Bibliography Comparative table of passages from Meditations.

Morality, consumerism and the internal market in health care.

Unlike the managerially oriented reforms that have brought auditing and accounting into such prominence in the UK National Health Service (NHS), and which seem alien to the culture of the caring professions, consumerist reforms may seem to complement moves towards the acceptance of wide definitions of health, and towards increasing patient autonomy. The empowerment favoured by those who support patient autonomy sounds like the sort of empowerment that is sometimes associated with the patients charter. For this reason moral criticism of recent NHS reforms may stop short of calling consumerism into question. This, however, would be a mistake: consumerism can be objectionable both within and beyond the health care market.

Hobbes and the morality beyond justice

Hobbes often wrote as if his particular contribution to political philosophy was to make the requirements of justice precise and authoritative for both subjects and sovereigns. This makes it appear as if his theory of justice and his arguments from justice for mass obedience to the sovereign are the centrepiece of his political philosophy. I am going to suggest that this theory is more limited in scope and application than Hobbes sometimes seems to claim it is. In order to function properly, his political philosophy requires the support of a whole range of moral requirements beyond the requirements of justice.

History in Hobbes's thought

Hobbes was very close to important figures in the history of politics and science as well as philosophy. His long life was marked by the disturbances that England underwent in the middle of the seventeenth century. The temptation is therefore strong to explain away as a mere consequence of the political upheavals of the 1640s his setting aside of the project of a complete philosophical system and his turning to a series of works of political philosophy. The main purpose of this essay will be to emphasize the inner consistency of Hobbess philosophical and scientific system, to identify the place and function of history in his system, and only then to study his performance as historian. Instead of a description - that is, a history - of Hobbess views on history, I will adopt three successive perspectives upon this subject. The first perspective is provided by the taxonomy of sciences in Leviathan and its theory of science. The functions and modes of history as defined in the early preface to the translation of Thucydides and in later historical works is the second perspective, with particular emphasis on the Leviathan-Behemoth diptych. The final part examines Hobbess performance as a historian in the light of the criteria identified in the first two parts.

Cartesian Method and the Self

The idea that the ‘I’ of Meditation One stands for a solipsistic self is familiar enough; but is it correct? The reading proposed here does not saddle Descartes with so questionable a doctrine, and yet it does not shield him from Wittgensteinian criticism either. Descartes is still vulnerable, but on a different flank. I first consider critically the claim that Descartes is committed to solipsism. Then I take issue with the attribution to him of the idea that privacy is the mark of the mental. Finally, I consider his tendency to “first-personalize” knowledge and to trace to “the prejudices of childhood” certain prephilosophical errors. Here is where Wittgensteinian criticism comes genuinely into its own.

Citizen–Patient/Citizen–Doctor

In a welfare states, no typical user of health care services isonly a patient; and no typical provider of these services is simply a doctor, nurse or paramedic. Occupiers of these rolesalso have distinctive relations and responsibilities – as citizens– to medical services, responsibilities that are widely acknowledgedby those who live in welfare states. Outside welfare states, thisfusion of civic consciousness with involvement in health care isless pronounced or missing altogether. But the globalisation of avery comprehensive understanding of human rights, including rightsto state-provided health care, will make welfare state thinking –for better or worse – more of an orthodoxy worldwide than it isnow. Medical ethics needs to reflect this.

Credit, insurance, and confidentiality

Abstract Different databases in the insurance industry present different problems of confidentiality. The Impaired Lives Register has often been compiled and consulted without the knowledge of those whom it concerns, and the presence of ones name on the register can put one at a disadvantage in applying for insurance or in obtaining low premiums. The justification for this way of keeping the Register is weak: it cannot plausibly be urged as a safeguard against fraud. It compounds the moral risks associated with the Register that it is associated with applications for a good—insurance—that is a precondition of securing property or medical treatment. Databases associated with the good of credit are open to misuse in their turn, but often the inconveniences associated with commercial access to ones personal details in the credit industry are outweighed by the advantages of having a responsible credit regime and safeguards against overindebtedness. Besides, in the UK, credit can be a lesser good than insurance.