Meta-Ethical Issues in Hobbes: Reassessing Externalism

In order to comprehend Thomas Hobbes’s moral and political theory, two philosophical categories might be considered: legalism, which pertains to the ethicallegal level, and externalism, which relates to the meta-ethical level. Within this framework, the fear of punishment is identified as a necessary and sufficient motivation to ensure obedience to the sovereign, representing one of the primary goals of Hobbes’s moral and political theory. However, when the religious aspects are also considered, a relevant fact emerges: that in circumstances where the sovereign’s command appears to be at odds with an alleged divine command, the motivating force tied to an intimate religious conviction regarding that divine command may prevail over fear of temporal punishment, as Hobbes himself acknowledges. At the meta-ethical level, this translates into a problem of insufficiency of pure externalism. It is argued that this alone is unable to fully explain the complex ethical theory of Hobbes, and that it can coexist with the sometimes internalist view that Hobbes holds in the theory of education and in the account of civil religion. The citizens that Hobbes pictures need both motivations related to the power of the sword, which urges them to obey in the face of temporal punishment, and reasons derived from appropriate education and emotions raised by civil religion, to adhere even inwardly to the Hobbesian political plan.