Hobbes's Theory of Justice.

Having been trained as a historian, philosopher and political scientist, the history of political thought has fascinated me for many years now.My doctoral research focuses on the moral and political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). I'm interested in early modern debates about the foundation of marality, as is manifested in political theory. My research is philosophical rather than contextual. I am currently studying Hobbes' concept of justice. Hobbes largely detached justice from morality.According to him, what we owe to each other as a matter of justice is determined by agreement. This is evident in this theory of political obligation and ligitimacy. I examine on what grounds we owe things to each other. To this end, I study concepts related to justice, such as "equity", "charity", "rights" and "merit". My research benefits from the conceptual resources contemporary (analytic) political philosophy offers. For this reason, I am currently studying philosophers such as Rawls, Scanlon and Sandel, and debates about "global justice" and "political oblibation". I intend to broaden my work on justice to other early modern political philosophers in the natural law tradition (e.g. Samuel Pufeldorf and John Locke), and to David Hume. My research is primarily historical, although the results may turn out to be relevant for contemporary debates onjustice.

Keywords:Political philosophy, Early modern philosophy, Natural law theory, John Rawls, David Hume, Political obligation, Justice, Thomas Hobbes

Disciplines:Ethics, Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified, Theory and methodology of philosophy, Philosophy

Project type:PhD project