PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

Giovanni Damele
IFILNOVA
giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

«Men that are once possessed of an opinion that their

obedience to the Soveraign power will be more hurtful
to them then their disobedience, will disobey the Laws,
and thereby over throw the Common-wealth, and
introduce confusion and civil War, for the
avoiding whereof, all civil Government was
ordained»

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

! “De Corpore (1655), “All such calamities as may be

avoided by human industry, arise from war, but
chiefly from civil war; for from this proceed
slaughter, solitude, and the want of all things…The
cause, therefore, of civil war is, that men know not
the causes neither of war nor peace, there being but
few in the world…that have learned the rules of civil
life sufficiently.”
! “from want of moral science, proceed civil wars,”

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

! “Experience teaches…that the dispute for

[precedence] betwene the spirituall and civill power,
has of late more then any other thing in the world,
bene the cause of ciuill warres, in all places of
Christendome.” [Hobbes to Cavendish, July 1645]

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

! It is manifest, that during the time men live without

a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in
that condition which is called Warre; and such a
warre, ” “as is of every man, against every man. For
WARRE, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of
fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to
contend by Battell is sufficiently known…So the
nature of War, consisteth not in actuall fighting; but
in the known disposition thereto, during all the time
there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time
is PEACE.”

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

! “it was therefore essential to maintain the

indivisibility of the sovereign’s rights, including “the
Right of making Warre, and Peace with other
Nations, and Common-wealths.” “For unlesse this
division precede, division into opposite Armies can
never happen. If there had not first been an opinion
received of the greatest part of England, that these
Powers were divided between the King, and the
Lords, and the House of Commons, the people had
never been divided, and fallen into this Civill Warre.”

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'
 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND STATE

! “The estate of Man can never be without some

incommodity or other; and that the greatest, that in
any forme of Government can possibly happen to the
people in generall, is scarce sensible, in respect of the
miseries, and horrible calamities, that accompany a
Civill Warre.”

Giovanni'Damele', giovanni.damele@fcsh.unl.pt'