The prisoner's dilemma is a well-known example in moral philosophy that characterizes some of the difficulties that arise when studying moral and justice theory. Throughout this paper it will be used as the vehicle to go from the different ideas of morality and justice. The purpose of this journey is to reach a refutation of pure self-interest, as proposed by Thomas Hobbes, as the guiding principle in considering the morality of actions. Thus this paper will touch on almost all of the different areas covered during the course of the semester and hopes to bind many of them together in a meaningful way.

The prisoner's dilemma operates in the following manner: Two prisoners, who cooperated in a crime together, are brought before an attorney general, one after the other so that each is unable to learn of the events that take place with their partner. They are told that if they confess to their crimes (i.e. turn their partner in) they themselves will be allowed to walk free while their partner will spend ten years in jail. This is only true however if it is just one of the prisoners who confesses; if b

oth confess then they will each have to spend five years in jail. Finally the third alternative, if neither of the prisoners confesses, is that each will spend one year in jail.

In a state of nature man is left to his own devices for his survival and comfort. In such a state he is also acting according to the impulses of pure self-interest; in that what he does has no connection with anything other than him. This state is one where everyone must beware of his neighbors. There is no assurance that they will not do onto him the things he could potentially do to them. It is in fact a state of complete paranoia. This can hardly be the best way to live life. From this state of nature a need for a symbiotic society develops. Personal diligence/self interest alone is not enough to create the most productive and beneficial state for the world as a whole. In entering such a society a contract is agreed upon with the sovereign power that will rule the people and it is with this first step that the disadvantages of a purely self-interested motivation are seen and the philosophy loses its place as the main driving factor in action. In following, and maintaining, the system that they have now become a part of they are obligated, through their consent to the contract, to uphold their end of it and obey those instructions that the sovereign gives to them in their own best interest. In turn it is the sovereign's responsibility to see that he uphold the part of his contract that proclaims that he will give rules/regulations to the people that are in their own interest.

In light of what has been seen it is apparent that either self-interest is an unproductive motive for behavior or that its tenets must be altered slightly. The reason for this conclusion is that as it stands, if everyone were to act purely out of the immediate circumstances in such a way to further their goals then no-one would be able to live in as beneficial a way as they could otherwise. This is an application of Kant's Categorical Imperative and the testing of a maxim as it would apply to all. In the prisoner's dilemma this is exemplified by the fact that if both parties act out of pure self-interest then they will both be imprisoned for five years without being allowed to confer or the second knowing the statement of the first. And even if these two conditions are removed the best possible set of circumstances for either are still not necessarily achieved. That is because thinking in a purely self-interested manner falls under the subjective consequentialist's realm; thus it has an intrinsic quality of only examining short term effects while deliberating on which course of action to take. It is hereby assumed that the reader is familiar with the different forms of consequentialism and how an objective or sophisticated objective consequentialist could never be purely self interested. If the prisoners were to follow less blatantly selfish dictates then better circumstances are possible.

There are situations in which a question of political duty cannot be answered by only one solution and in such cases it is necessary to look for another system of behavior that would determine the right course of action. This paper acknowledges that the political contract need not be the highest motivation driving a man's actions. In such a situation another viable system is that of moral obligation, where certain actions may have no more (discernable) political worth than another, but may be judged for their worth according to moral principles. Before going on to describe the principles discussed so far as they relate to morality it should be mentioned that by placing moral obligation under political obligation it is not a proclamation of politics being better than morality as a motivation for action. It is simply that when considering self-interest as it relates to politics, the political aspects must be considered first. Similarly in the following discuss

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3087
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)