紀要論文

平和は「絶対に」求めるべきか?(2・完)ホッブズを進化心理学で修正する : 自然状態と根本的自然法

Ought "Every Man" to Endeavour Peace?(2)Modifying Hobbes's Idea Using Evolutionary Psychology : Natural Condition and the Fundamental Law of Nature

jpn

04412486

https://doi.org/10.15002/00012755

法政大学文学部

72

11

29

2016-03-30

Version of Record

We ought to avoid war and seek （or endeavour to keep）peace. This would be the prevailing norm in our time. Then, can it be justified universally for any peoples who have a huge variety of values and beliefs in different countries, cultures and times? Thomas Hobbes insists “to seek peace” is the fundamental law of nature, which is valid universally. It is because peace is indispensable for every man to attain his own conservation, which is the end of man. He thinks that peace seeking is the effective means for all of us to attain self-conservation. However, war can be an effective means for men to survive in underproductive environments like Japan and Europe in the Middle Ages. Many people could not secure sufficient life resources by cultivating their fields peacefully at that time because they had only poor knowledge and low technology to produce resources and suffered from disasters and famine frequently. They had to go to wars and plunder other villages in order to gain the necessary resources to survive. Peace seeking would only lead them to starvation and it could not be an effective means for them to attain self-conservation under those conditions. “To seek peace” cannot be aright norm there. It can be justified only on condition that every man can gain sufficient life resources and survive by peaceful activities like exchange, for example commercial deals, in high productivity environments. The normative validity of peace seeking depends on the environmental conditions and “To seek peace” is not a Law of Nature as a universal norm.

Article

AN00226157