Hobbes's Laws of Nature

Hobbes kept the vocabulary of natural law but transformed its meaning. He distinguished the right of nature, the liberty each person has to use their own power to preserve their life, from a law of nature, a rule found by reason forbidding a person to do what destroys their life. The first law of nature is to seek peace and follow it, while defending oneself by any means if peace cannot be had. The second is to be willing to lay down one's right to all things when others are willing too.

The third is to keep the agreements one makes, which Hobbes called the source of justice. He listed nineteen laws in all, including gratitude, equity and the safe conduct of mediators. Unlike Aquinas, Hobbes presented these laws as rules of prudence for survival rather than as a moral order reflecting divine reason. They bind in conscience always, he said, but bind in action only when others can be trusted to obey them too.