Is Hobbes describing a 0th or 1st Law of Nature here?

Question

In Hobbes' Leviathan, specifically section The Fundamental Law Of Nature contained in Chapter XIV, Hobbes says:

"And consequently it is a precept, or generall rule of Reason, “That every man, ought to endeavour Peace, as farre as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps, and advantages of Warre.” The first branch, of which Rule, containeth the first, and Fundamentall Law of Nature; which is, “To seek Peace, and follow it.” The Second, the summe of the Right of Nature; which is, “By all means we can, to defend our selves.”"

From my interpretation of this passage, Hobbes is describing a "precept, or generall rule of Reason" that incorporates both the First & Fundamentall Law of Nature and the Right of Nature (which he previously defined), Hobbes directly saying that it "containeth the first, and Fundamentall Law of Nature" and contains "the summe of the Right of Nature" -- 'summe' I take to mean 'summary' or 'gist' from the corresponding Wiktionary article.

And commentators on Hobbes, such as David Gauthier -- in their article "Hobbes: the laws of nature" -- have seemed to confirm my interpretation, referring to it as:

"Hobbes’s first law of nature, “to seek peace, and follow it”, or “that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as has hope of obtaining it” is easily inferred as “a precept, or general rule of reason”.

Which is the "Seek Peace" precept (Fundamental Law of Nature) isolated from the Right of Nature "If Necessary, Defend yourself by any means"

However other sources, such as the Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy, specifically their article "Thomas Hobbes: Methodology", define the First/Fundamental Law of Nature as:

"The first law of nature is that every person should seek peace with others, unless others are not willing to cooperate, in which case one may use the “helps of war.” This law of nature has two parts to it."

These two parts being the "Seek Peace" precept --i.e., what was originally the First/Fundamental Law of Nature -- and the Right of Nature.

So with this information, It seems that IEP (Stephen Finn) is suggesting that the First/Fundamental Law of Nature actually refers to the incorporation of the "Seek Peace" precept and the Right of Nature, where Gautheir and myself see it as referring to the "Seak Peace" precept by itself.

Now previously Hobbes defined a Law of Nature as:

a Precept, or generall Rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved

This 'precept' then, incorporating the "Seak Peace" precept and Right of Nature by my own interpretation, seems to refer to a different Law of Nature (A '0th Law of Nature' perhaps) as opposed to the First/Fundamental Law of Nature.

Is my thinking correct?

Answer 1

IMO there is no contradiction between two "first" Laws of Nature.

The underlying distinction is that stated by Hobbes into Chapter XIV about right: "the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own nature [...] and consequently, of doing anything which, in his own judgement and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto" and law: "a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life".

Thus, from one side we have liberty (the right) and from the other side we have an obligation (the law).

They must understood against Hobbes' view about natural condition before humans enter into society: humans driven by passions are led to hurt each other with the "paradoxical" consequence that:

"the right of all to all, wherewith one by right invades, the other by right resists",

producing

"a condition of war of every one against every one [...]. it followeth that in such a condition every man has a right to every thing, even to one another's body. [...] And consequently it is a precept, or general rule of reason: that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war.

Here we have the two sides of human condition; the first is the law side: in order to follow the "obligation" of human nature [to preserve its own life], humans have "to seek peace and follow it", but - at the same time - in order to exert the fundamental human right [liberty], we have "to defend ourselves", when peace is not possible.

You can see: David Gauthier, Hobbes: The Laws of Nature (2001) as well as Perez Zagorin, Hobbes and the Law of Nature (Princeton UP, 2010).