"...as long as this natural right of every man to every thing endureth, there can be no security to any man."
Chapter Fourteen: Of the First and Second Natural Laws
- Hobbes makes a distinction between the RIGHT of Nature (ius naturale), and the LAW of Nature (lex naturalis).
- The "Right of Nature" provides that every man has the liberty to use his own power as he sees fit for self-preservation.
- The "Law of Nature" is a "precept or general rule found out by reason", which states that man is forbidden to do anything that endangers his own life, or the things he needs to survive.
- As Hobbes tells us, "Right consisteth in liberty to do or to forbear, whereas Law determineth and bindeth to one of them." Right implies liberty, while law implies obligation.
- Hobbes is working up to the eventual point that in reality, it is in man's best interest to pursue peace. As long as the individual is involved in the state of war described in the previous chapter, no man is safe. By upholding the "Right of Nature" by pursuing his right to "every thing", man perpetuates the state of war and is violating the "Law of Nature" by continually endangering his own well-being.
- The chapter ends with Hobbes drawing on biblical support from the Golden Rule: "Whatsoever you require that others should do to you, that do ye to them." (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31 KJV)