Thomas Hobbes and the constraints that enable the imitation of God

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 42 (2):149 – 176 (1999)
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Abstract

Hobbes promises to teach philosophers how to imitate God. With this bold claim as its basis, the paper questions the widely accepted view that Hobbes authored an early instance of a modern social science. It focuses on the constraints that Hobbes imposes on the language of philosophical practitioners. He restricts its truth-claims to the closed circle of language; he does not philosophize to describe, model, predict, or mirror empirical reality. He nevertheless makes claims for a useful science, one that can construct a stable commonwealth. The restrictive claims concerning truth and Hobbes 's claim to a practical philosophy are reconciled through an investigation of his distinction between 'a posteriori' and 'a priori' sciences. Hobbes teaches philosophers to imitate God as a creator : as a 're-creator' of divinely produced effects, or by manipulating matter to create things we design ourselves. The science of politics is a priori. It dictates the motions so as to create a well-ordered commonwealth, an artificial man, a creation made in our own image

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Citations of this work

Wild ranging: Prudence and philosophy's imitation of God in the works of Thomas Hobbes.Ted H. Miller - 2002 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 45 (1):81 – 87.
Hobbes and the imitation of God.Eric Brandon - 2001 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 44 (2):223 – 226.

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