ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes says that the laws of nature are binding in foro interna in the state of nature, but binding in foro externa only in civil society. That is to say, they are binding in conscience or in the intention in man's natural condition, but binding in the act only in civil society. This might sound somewhat strange, but it is crucial to Hobbes's moral and political philosophy. Justice is a virtue, but in man's natural condition it is at best an ineffective virtue because it does not specify any action as one that must be performed or as one that may not be performed. In man's natural condition, in the war of each against all, anybody who performs those acts that would be kind in civil society is simply and pointlessly delivering himself to his enemies. He achieves no good thereby.
