Attention Secondary Two Philosophers!
English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (1588--1679) once said:
"All human beings’ actions are selfishly motivated. So, for purely selfish reasons, a person is better off living in a world with moral rules than one without moral rules.
For without moral rules, we are subject to the whims of other people's selfish interests. Our property, our families, and even our lives are at continual risk.
Selfishness alone will therefore motivate each person to adopt a basic set of rules which will allow for a civilized community.
Not surprisingly, these rules would include prohibitions against lying, stealing and killing.
However, these rules will ensure safety for persons only if the rules are enforced.
As selfish creatures, each of us would plunder our neighbors' property once their guards were down. Each person would then be at risk from his neighbor.
Therefore, for selfish reasons alone, we devise a means of enforcing these rules: we create a policing agency which punishes us if we violate these rules—the government, the law."
What is Hobbes trying to say?
Do you agree with his point of view?
