ABSTRACT

The argument that Hobbes presents about the state of nature has recently been interpreted in game theoretic terms. Game theory looks at human interaction in a variety of formal ways to show up the mutual interdependence of our actions and the ways that rational actions can have consequences quite different from those intended by the actor. Hobbes’s account of the situation in the state of nature has been explained in terms of one particular element of game theory: the prisoners’ dilemma. The American political philosopher, Jean Hampton, wrote one of the best books in this area: Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition (1986), which used the techniques of game theory to investigate the state of nature, and the possibility of exiting it. This extract is from her last book, Political Philosophy.