First Quiz

May 20, 1997

On the front of this sheet of paper, answer each of the following questions. Provide a distinct answer for each question, numbering your answers as you proceed. Your answers will be graded according to preciseness as well as accuracy. Before turning in your quiz, fold this sheet of paper in half, lengthwise (i.e., so that the crease goes from top to botton, down the middle), and write your name on the back. Only answers written on the front will influence your grade, and nothing written on the front should reveal your identity.

1. What, in Hobbes’s view, makes an act voluntary? According to Hobbes, when a bank teller surrenders cash to an armed robber, can the teller claim that the surrender was not really voluntary, since the robber had a gun?
2. What are the three causes of quarrel that Hobbes finds “in the nature of man”?
3. Under what circumstances is a covenant invalid, according to Hobbes?
4. According to Hobbes, what is the main motive for keeping covenants?
5. What is the objection of the character whom Hobbes calls “the fool”?