‘The Will of God’

The will of God – the 'moral code' – can become a source of obligations only if it is mediated by a positive law. Spinoza's rejection of 'Divine Law' implies that all authority is of human origin and ultimately all obedience is rooted in a political structure. According to Hobbes man's natural condition is a ruthless war of all against all, without right or wrong, justice or injustice: Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Spinoza shares with Hobbes the idea of a state of nature in which man is 'no more in duty bound to live according to the laws of a sound mind than a cat to live according to the laws of a lion's nature'. If one assumes that a civil society is not the result of an act of obedience but a natural phenomenon, the laws governing the state of nature are not abrogated in a civil society.