Hobbes understood that human lives are always less and always more than exercises in the individual pursuit of narrow self-interest. Although truly “generous natures” may be rare, rarer still is the person who does not find much of her life directed by her beliefs about her religious duties and moral obligations, her affectionate attachments, her sense of pride and desire to be esteemed, all operating alongside of, and sometimes pulling apart from, her narrow self-interests in temporal physical survival and material comfort. Unfortunately, these natural motivations often bring us into conflict with others, and when we hold transcendent interests in acting on them, our ensuing actions may destabilize the basic social framework that makes possible an environment conducive to the exercise of anyone's effective agency, including our own. If we were motivated solely by considerations of narrow self-interest, society could be effectually coordinated, and domestic peace maintained perpetually, by brute governmental force. The complexities of human nature being what they are, however, only a society that enjoys a critical mass of consensus in the judgment that deference to the government is licensed by the requirements of morality, honor, and affirmed religion will remain stable for long.

Hobbes develops a normative system intended to harmonize these various motivations, both within the individual and among citizens.