Equality and Community: State of Nature and Social Contract in Hobbes' and Rawls' Theory Cover Image

Jednakost i zajednica: prirodno stanje i društveni ugovor kod Hobbesa i Rawlsa
Equality and Community: State of Nature and Social Contract in Hobbes' and Rawls' Theory

Author(s): Ana Matan
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Fakultet političkih znanosti u Zagrebu
Keywords: Hobbes; Rawls; equality; community; state of nature; social contract

Summary/Abstract: The author compares Hobbes’ state of nature and Rawls’ original position in an attempt to answer the question: How to arrive at a community starting from individualistic premises? The comparison shows a striking similarity between Hobbes’ and Rawls’ initial positions showing itself in the radical equality of the denizens in both ‘states of nature’ and the insistence on the part of both authors to secure recognition of such equality. The essentially similar conditions in the state of nature suggest that the difference between their “social contracts” should lie in the other parts of their theories. The decisive differences lie in Rawls’ assumption that individuals are motivated by a sense of justice (much stronger than in Hobbes’ theory) that enables a choice of principles of justice in Rawls’ state of nature. The agreement on principles is an expression of human sociability, while an agreement on a sovereign is a concession to human unsociability. Autorica uspoređuje Hobbesovo prirodno stanje i Rawlsovu izvornu poziciju u potrazi za odgovorom na pitanje: kako doći do zajednice iz individualističkih premisa? Usporedba pokazuje izrazitu sličnost Hobbesove i Rawlsove početne pozicije koja se ogleda u radikalnoj jednakosti stanovnika obaju prirodnih stanja i u nastojanjima obaju autora da te stanovnike natjeraju da svoju jednakost uzajamno priznaju. Sličnost uvjeta u Hobbesovu i Rawlsovu prirodnom stanju upućuje na to da se različitost njihovih “društvenih ugovora” mora objasniti iz drugih elemenata njihovih teorija. Presudne se razlike pokazuju u tome što Rawls pretpostavlja da su ljudi motivirani osjećajem za pravednost koji omogućuje da se u Rawlsovoj izvornoj poziciji odlučuje o načelima pravednosti. Dogovor oko načela izraz je ljudske moralnosti i društvenosti, dok je dogovor oko suverena ustupak ljudskoj nedruštvenosti.

  • Issue Year: XLI/2004
  • Issue No: 04
  • Page Range: 42-58
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Croatian
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