Comments on: The Market and the Leviathan: Changing Incentives to Bring About Cooperation http://www.lawsocietyblog.com/archives/357 Notes from the intersection of law, society, technology, economics, and culture Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:40:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Michael Webster http://www.lawsocietyblog.com/archives/357#comment-8802 Michael Webster Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:38:28 +0000 http://www.lawsocietyblog.com/archives/357#comment-8802 The individuals in Hobbes' state of nature are in a zero sum game because violence against the person is incommensurable. Whether or not there exists some market for commercial transactions is irrelevant. The authority of the state for a privileged monopoly on coercion is what Hobbes was trying to justify. As event in Iraq have demonstrated clearly again, without such a monopoly the individual's life is nasty, brutish and short. The individuals in Hobbes’ state of nature are in a zero sum game because violence against the person is incommensurable.

Whether or not there exists some market for commercial transactions is irrelevant.

The authority of the state for a privileged monopoly on coercion is what Hobbes was trying to justify.

As event in Iraq have demonstrated clearly again, without such a monopoly the individual’s life is nasty, brutish and short.

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