Leviathan · Chapter
Of Punishments and Rewards explained
Hobbes defines punishment as an evil inflicted by public authority for a transgression of the law, intended to dispose men to obedience.
What happens
Hobbes defines punishment as an evil inflicted by public authority for a transgression of the law, intended to dispose men to obedience. He argues that the sovereign's right to punish is not granted by subjects but is retained from the state of nature, where each had a right to all things for self-preservation. He distinguishes punishment from private revenge, hostile acts, and mere neglect, and discusses various forms such as ignominy, imprisonment, and exile, emphasizing that punishment of the innocent violates natural law.
Themes in this chapter
Sovereignty and Absolute Power
Hobbes grounds the sovereign's right to punish in the natural right retained from the state of nature, emphasizing that this right is not given by subjects but left to the sovereign alone.
Justice and Law
The chapter distinguishes lawful punishment from acts of hostility and private revenge, and asserts that punishment of the innocent violates natural law principles of equity and gratitude.
Human Nature and Passions
Hobbes discusses how the aim of punishment is to dispose men's wills to obedience, referencing pride and other passions that compel submission to government.
Characters to notice
- Cicero
Cited regarding the nature of exile, noting that Rome never ordained such punishment but considered it a refuge for men in danger.
Key passages
“A punishment “is an evil inflicted by public authority on him that hath done or omitted that which is judged by the same authority to be a transgression of the law; to the end that the will of men may thereby the better be disposed to obedience.””
Punishment is a harm imposed by the state on someone who has been judged to have broken the law, with the purpose of encouraging obedience.
Hobbes's formal definition of punishment.
“For the subjects did not give the sovereign that right; but only in laying down theirs, strengthened him to use his own, as he should think fit, for the preservation of them all: so that it was not given, but left to him, and to him only; and (excepting the limits set him by natural law) as entire as in the condition of mere nature, and of war of everyone against his neighbour.”
Subjects do not grant the sovereign the right to punish; rather, by giving up their own rights, they enable the sovereign to exercise his natural right to do whatever is necessary for their preservation.
Hobbes explains the origin of the sovereign's punitive authority.
“All punishments of innocent subjects, be they great or little, are against the law of Nature; for punishment is only for transgression of the law, and therefore there can be no punishment of the innocent.”
Punishing innocent subjects always violates natural law, because punishment is only justified for lawbreakers.
Hobbes asserts the principle that only the guilty may be punished.