Leviathan Punishment

Let him therefore consider with himselfe, when taking a journey, he armes himself, and seeks to go well accompanied; when going to sleep, he locks his dores; when even in his house he locks his chests…what opinion he has of his fellow Citizens, when he locks his dores; and of his children, and servants, when he locks his chests. Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions… [?] (Hobbes, Leviathan, I.xiii, 186-187)
Because men lack “direct epistemic access” to the particular intentions of others, they are rationally inclined to be skeptical of those around them (including their own children) at all times (Yates 2012, 79). Thus, when subjects enter into a commonwealth via the social contract, their reason compels them to establish a power by which to curb the pervasive feeling of diffidence. In the absence of such a coercive force, an individual can have no guarantee that his neighbor will keep his covenant, and thus no rational motive to do the same (Ristroph 2014, 31; Hobbes, Leviathan, I.xiv, 196-197). In this new light, punishment serves as an assurance to each subject that his/her neighbor [will] be penalized if they chose to violate the established covenant. Ristroph (2014, 31) demonstrates that Hobbes’s system of punishment, “serve(s) as a kind of psychological safety net, a reassurance from the sovereign to the person who is willing to
Although fear of punishment is essential to the maintenance of the commonwealth, it only exerts an active force on the unjust few. For the majority of citizens, however, punishment serves to alleviate feelings of diffidence and reinforce the rational character of the social contract. In this respect, punishment better disposes the “wills of men” to obedience by reassuring the individual that just behavior is the most expedient means to