Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that the laws of nature that comprise Hobbes’s moral philosophy and both ground and constrain his political philosophy articulate a requirement of reciprocity. Hobbes derives the reciprocity requirement as a theorem of reason from our human nature as rational agents necessarily concerned to make our agency effective. The laws of nature impose a demand to join political society, as well as impose duties on both subjects and sovereigns, and constrain behavior among nations. I explain the relation that the laws of nature bear to civil law and to divine positive law and offer an account of the source of their normativity that contrasts with familiar scholarly accounts.