Virtues and Rights

This interpretation of the moral and political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes argues that he well understood the importance of moral behaviour to civilized society. Challenging currently fashionable game theoretic reconstructions of Hobbesian logic, the author contends that modern readers have misconstrued his view of the relationship between politics and morality. Among the implications of Ewin's reading are that Hobbes never thought that "the war of each against all" was an empirical possibility for citizens; that his political theory actually presupposes moral agency; and that his account of natural law forces us to the conclusion that Hobbes was a virtue theorist.