Though I agree with Hobbes on some points, I reject the premise of his theory, as he believes that the "social contract" keeps us all from reverting back to our natural state, which is basically killing each other when we feel like it. He looks at society as being the chief creature of "morals and values" (though not in the explicitly Christian sense) and denies the idea that man is, by nature, a social creature. While I agree that society is the establisher of norms and values, I disagree that the natural state of man is nessesarily barbaric. One question that I would ask is "where did all these norms come from in the first place"? Some one had to make them up, in fact, to spread like they have, many peopel would have to make them up. You cannot simply trace this stuff back to one source event. It makes more sense to say that man took those things which were already a part of his charecter and made them into norms, thus the natural state of man, while not nessesarily "moral" is not "brutish" either.
What points of Hobbes do you agree with?
Poll
