Overview

Without a common power–a government–to keep everyone in line and on their best behavior, our lives would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” At least, so claims Thomas Hobbes, whose 1651 masterwork, Leviathan, fundamentally changed the way that political legitimacy has been conceived of in Western political philosophy. Hobbes’ revolutionary insight was that the consent of the governed authorizes the legitimacy of the government, an idea which had no small impact on the core claims of such foundational documents as the U.S. Declaration of Independence. But interestingly, Hobbes doesn’t advocate in Leviathan for anything approaching representative democracy. Rather, his contentious claim is that we have good reason to consent to a form of government closer to absolute monarchy: a form of government
that he considers to be more stable, and therefore more desirable, than any other. The
foundation of Hobbes’ argument for consent-based monarchy is found in his famous (or
infamous) “State of Nature” thought experiment, in which he invites his readers to imagine that awful state without a stable government. Life in such a state would be so bad, so deeply undesirable, that Hobbes argues we would have good reason to do everything we could to avoid it: namely, to abandon most of our freedoms to an absolute Sovereign. Before Hobbes can make that argument, however, he needs to convince us that life in the State of Nature really is untenable, and it is precisely this assumption that we’ll seek to test together over the course of the program.
In a dedicated Minecraft realm, we’ll find something as close to a State of Nature as we’re likely to discover. Our mission is simple: stay alive and accumulate points for various achievements conducive to living a good and comfortable life. If we find that we can do this with minimal difficulty, then the heuristic foundations of Hobbes’ argument become suspect. If, however, we find that life in a (artificial) State of Nature really is as bad as Hobbes promised it would be... then we have some serious thinking to do about whether we’re interested in accepting Hobbes’ contentious and unpopular conclusions. Over the course of the program, we’ll intersperse close readings of key sections of Leviathan with structured shared gameplay in Minecraft, and reflect upon how our experiences in this digital political community provide us with answers to some of the questions that have lingered since the birth of the social contract tradition.

Preparatory Resources

We will review most of the assigned passages of Leviathan together in class, so don’t worry if you’re having trouble understanding Hobbes’s particular brand of old-timey English! If you’ve never played Minecraft before and want to get the basic gist, you may wish to review the Minecraft Help Center Beginner’s Guide. There are also lots of great video guides on Youtube. Single-player Minecraft is free, so feel free to make an account and practice a bit / run around and have adventures just to get your bearings!

Basic Structure of the Game

Everyone starts with 5000 points. Points can be earned or lost (based on sessions details and Ground Rules below) as each player moves through each session. At the end of the semester, the student who has the highest number of points wins the Grand Prize*.
*It’s a secret.
Ground Rules:
• If you kill someone...
o You get to keep their inventory
o You get to keep their house / base / territory
o You gain 250 points
• If you are killed by someone...
o You lose all of your inventory
o You lose your house / base / territory
o You lose 500 points
• If you are killed non-agentially (e.g., by falling from a high place, swimming in lava, or being attacked by mobs), anyone who finds your inventory may claim it as their own and enjoys a 100 point reward.
• You can take anything from anyone (if you can manage it)

Let’s play!

DAY 1: Getting Started
Topics: Historical context and relevant background information on Hobbes and the
English Civil Wars; exploration of the notion of ‘right reason’ as mathematical and
experiential.
Reading to Complete in Advance: Introduction (pp. 3-5); Ch. V Of Reason and Science
(§1-17); Ch. XI Of the Difference of Manners (§1-3)

1. Close Reading Introduction; Ch. V Of Reason and Science (§1-4)
2. Gameplay

• Get everyone logged into our class realm
• Troubleshoot any technical issues

• Create our avatar characters

3. Reflection

What are our goals this semester? What challenges do we think we might face? How does Hobbes’s emphasis on experiential investigation map onto our shared project?

DAY 2: Welcome to the State of Nature
Topics: Equality of man in the natural state; features, limits, departure from how we
ordinarily understand equality in the contemporary world.
Reading to Complete in Advance: Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§1-3)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
Points: At the end of the session...
• For every full (64) set of a natural resource, you are
awarded 100 points.
• If you have substantive shelter (with a light source and a
door), you are awarded 100 points.
2. Close Reading Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§1-3)
3. Reflection

How did “equality” manifest itself in the game session? In what ways were participants equal or unequal to each other? Did equality give rise to the “diffidence” that Hobbes describes? Does this equality hold in the real (not Minecraft) world?

DAY 3: The State of Nature as a State of War
Topics: The state of war as a known disposition to violence (for competition, diffidence,
or glory), and the barriers that such a relationship erects to anything resembling basic
civil discourse.
Readings to Complete in Advance: Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§4-9)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
Points: At the end of the session...
• For every full (64) set of a natural resource, you are awarded 100 points.
• For every crafted object in your inventory (found or created), you are awarded 25 points.
• For everyone object in your inventory that no one else also has, you are awarded 50 points.
2. Close Reading Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§4-9)

3. Reflection

How did “competition” give rise to conflict in the game world?
What about “diffidence”? “Glory”? What group industries, if any, was the class able to engage in (e.g., commerce, trading, collaborating, joint planning, etc.)?

DAY 4: Incommodities
Topics: The “passions that incline men to Peace” are not simply fear of violent death (a
negative peace) but the desire for “commodious living” (a positive peace) – something
impossible to obtain in any meaningful and permanent way in the natural state of
mankind that Hobbes describes.
Readings to Complete in Advance: Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§10-14)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
• Make the nicest house / home base you can manage(bed, carpet, light source, chests, food, cozy touches). 

Points: At the end of the session...
• Whoever has the best home base (by class vote) earns 1000 points.
• Whoever has the second-best home base (by class vote) earns 750 points.
• Whoever has the third-best home base (by class vote) earns 500 points.

2. Close Reading Ch. XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind (§10-14)

3. Reflection

What barriers to building a nice home did the lawless state ofthe game world present? What dangers were introduced by trying to accumulate comforts and luxuries? What concerns does accumulating comforts and luxuries give rise to for our next session?

DAY 5: The First Law of Nature
Topics: The difference between right and law, and Hobbes’ conception of the “fundamental law of nature” as the seeking and construction of peace and self-protection.

Readings to Complete in Advance: Ch. XIV Of the First and Second Natural Laws and of
Contracts (§1-4)
1. Gameplay Mission:

• Stay alive and earn points.

• Defend yourself.
Points: At the end of the session...
• Ground Rule Multiplier: If you kill someone during this session, you gain 750 points per kill.
• If you avoided being killed at all, you gain 1500 points.
2. Close Reading Ch. XIV Of the First and Second Natural Laws and of Contracts (§1-4)

3. Reflection

How did people defend themselves from harm? Was anything off the table? Were some strategies more reasonable than others (e.g., bribery, arrangements, evasion, fighting back)?

DAY 6: The Second Law of Nature
Topics: Hobbes’ conception of the second law of nature as (a) following from the first and (b) mandating that we lay down our rights on the condition that others do likewise.
Readings to be Completed in Advance: Ch. XIV Of the First and Second Natural Laws and of Contracts (§5-9)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
• Form an alliance.
Points: At the end of the session...
• Any duo or group of students that successfully forms an
acknowledged alliance or non-violence pact receives an
extra 500 points each.

• There is no point penalty for breaking an alliance or non-
violence pact.

2. Close Reading Ch. XIV Of the First and Second Natural Laws and of Contracts (§5-9)

3. Reflection

Diffidence aside, what barriers did we encounter to alliance-forming? Did we break our pacts? Why / under what circumstances? What laws / rights were operative in those
decisions?

DAY 7: Contract Enforcement: Mutual Defense?

Topics: Hobbes’ notion of contracting for safety (e.g., by forming alliances or non-
violence pacts) is complicated by the fact that no one, in the State of Nature, can straightforwardly enforce such a contract.
Readings to be Completed in Advance: Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and
Definition of Commonwealth (§1-3)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
• Make a journey to the Nether with at least 3 others.
Points: At the end of the session...
• Any group that works together to kill 5-10 mobs gets 100
points each.
• Any group that works together to kill 10-20 mobs gets
200 points each.
• Once the cavern has been exited, there is no point
penalty for killing former group members and
confiscating their inventory.

2. Close Reading Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of Commonwealth (§1-3)

3. Reflection

War against enemies can seem, Hobbes grants, to distract us from our own internal quarrels... But once the enemy is vanquished, a desire for mutual defense is no longer useful for keeping the peace. Was this observation born out by your journey underground? Did you work better together when there were enemies nearby? Did you trust each other less once you came back to the surface?

DAY 8: Contract Enforcement: The Great Multitude?
Topics: Another option that Hobbes considers is the “great multitude” itself enforcing
each member’s contracts of non-aggression (something like a direct democracy).
Readings to be Completed in Advance: Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and
Definition of Commonwealth (§4-5)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
• Make 1 rule for the general regulation of behavior that applies equally to everyone.
Points: At the end of the session...
• Anyone who manages to follow every operative communal rule gets 1000 points.
• Communal rules can be rendered ‘inoperative’ by killing their creator.

2. Close Reading Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of

Commonwealth (§4-5)

3. Reflection

Are some rules more enforceable than others? Do individual rule-makers seem to have the ability to enforce their own rules, or to defend themselves from attack by those who reject them? Does this reveal anything to us about the nature of the purely
lateral civil accountability?

DAY 9: Contract Enforcement: The Sovereign
Topics: The most famous (and perhaps least attractive) piece of Hobbes’ political theory: the necessity of a single, all-powerful monarch capable of enforcing contracts.
Readings to be Completed in Advance: Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and
Definition of Commonwealth (§13-15)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• Stay alive and earn points.
• Create a commonwealth.
Points: At the end of the session...
• Anyone who transfers their rights to the Sovereign (Instructor) gets 500 points and protection from murder, theft, or trespass.
• Anyone who has transferred their rights and then violates that transfer by exercising those rights loses 5000 points.
• Anyone who has not transferred their rights and harms a member of the commonwealth (through murder, theft, or trespass) loses 5000 points.

2. Close Reading Ch. XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of

Commonwealth (§13-15)

3. Reflection

Is the Sovereign’s presence sufficient to deter the interpersonal violence that mutual defense pacts and communal agreements could not? What about the Sovereign’s status makes contracts enforceable? Is it a good idea to transfer your rights to the Sovereign? A bad idea? Why?

DAY 10: Welcome to the Commonwealth
Topics: Wrap-up
Readings to be Completed: Ch. XVIII Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution (§1-20)

1. Gameplay

Mission:
• No more points: just have fun!*
* But the Sovereign can dock you 25 points per arbitrary offense.
2. Close Reading Ch. XVIII Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution (§1-20)

3. Reflection

Is even a bad or unjust Sovereign a better alternative than living in the State of Nature? Why or why not? How does this provide a data point for Hobbes’ ultimate conclusion? How does the legacy of Hobbes’ argument continue to have a ripple effect on our own political ideas?