blogs
Where are the morals?
So I just finished reading from Hobbes. (I see why it’s called Leviathan now!) Although it was difficult to get past the first 40 pages of definitions, there were some things about what Hobbes had to say about commonwealths that struck me.
What most interested me is that Hobbes seems to argue that in the absence of commonwealth, concepts such as justice and the like don’t apply. Hobbes says: “Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice” It’s difficult to explain, but I find myself opposed to that assertion, as I find myself opposed to many other assertions made in the portion of the book that I’ve read.
I guess what I’m wondering is: where are the morals here?What role do morals play in determining justice? I find myself connecting justice and morals in a way that defines “justice” in a little bit of a different way that Hobbes does. I have a hard time separating morals from justice and/or injustice, whereas Hobbes treats them as entirely separate. If I was a wanderer, completely separate from any commonwealth, my actions, according to Hobbes, cannot be unjust, but I still feel as though I would view them as unjust due to morals.
One of the other things that struck me, is that Hobbes tends to see issues in black and white, so to speak. There’s either war or peace, justice or injustice, love or hate, honour or dishonour, etc. There seems to be no middle ground in such issues, which is not the way I’ve seen the world in my experience. I would tend to see a middle ground in a lot of these issues such as war and peace. So, in trying so hard to define the world, does Hobbes overlook a middle ground, or am I seeing a middle ground where it really doesn’t exist?
Is Hobbes writing as he does, and using the definitions he does only to describe concepts in relation to commonwealths, or is he trying to also describe the human condition? If so, is he doing it justice?
Silence: A Poem
I am eternal I have existed and will exist I am the first and the last Ever present and powerless I am empty in voice I am the voice of the empty I am mute and cannot speak Yet great … Continue reading → Continue reading →
I hate Hobbes
That is all.
Continue reading →
The Master and Margarita
When I first bought all of the books, I looked at “The Master and Margarita” and immediately dreaded reading it. Being on the thick side, I thought that the book was going to be extremely hard to get through. I am glad to be proven wrong. Although I found the first chapter of the book […] Continue reading →
Bulgakov on Doctor Faustus
The Master and Margarita is definitely my favourite of the works that we have studied thus far in Arts One. Many consider it to be one of the greatest novels of Russian literature, if not one of the greatest pieces of … Continue reading → Continue reading →
Cause we all want to know why they are all naked.
Ok so first off I will say I know this isn’t my week to blog but since I am stuck doing one about Hobbes so Imma do this one too. If I didn’t make it clear during the lecture I … Continue reading → Continue reading →
My views on the recent sexual assaults
Now, this has nothing to do with Arts One. At all. But since Christina mentioned we should use this blog for other things, I thought it would be a good place to vent out my feelings. It is not all … Continue reading → Continue reading →
Everyone’s disappearing… Take me too, maybe? –– The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Between trying to study for my mid-terms and trying to finish reading The Master and Margarita I have to admit I’ve become very confused; everything is just mixing together in this one big container labelled “brain”. And while this mixing is … Continue reading → Continue reading →
