Thomas Hobbes

Durante la redacción de la reseña de este libro llegó la triste noticia de la muerte de su autor, Juan Trías Vejarano. Profesor entrañable que deja un afectuoso recuerdo, mantuvo hasta el final su gran inquietud intelectual y su labor investigadora. Muestra de ello es este libro, que el autor concibió como una última aportación, y que tuvo la satisfacción de ver culminada y publicada. No pudo sin embargo acudir a su presentación, que se convirtió en su ausencia en un (...) sentido homenaje. (shrink)

This article reassesses Hobbes’s place in the history of ethics based on the first systematic analysis of his various classifications of formal goodness. The good was traditionally divided into three: profitably good, pleasurably good, and morally good. Across his works, Hobbes replaced the last with pulchrum—a decidedly non-moral form of goodness on his account. I argue that Hobbes’s dismissal of moral goodness was informed by his hedonist conception of the good and accompanied by reinterpretations of right reason and natural law. (...) By dispensing moral goodness and insisting on the hedonist and relational nature of the good, Hobbes moreover recast and rendered more urgent the question of why we should be moral. Hobbes is commonly thought to have raised this question so starkly because of his general insensitivity to the demands of justice. My analysis suggests that it may also, or rather, have been due to his restrictive conception of the good. A comparison with other moral philosophers from the period—including Suárez, Gassendi, Locke, and Pufendorf—indicates how unusual Hobbes’s jettisoning of moral goodness was. (shrink)

This work is on Hobbesian Conception of Human Nature: Moral Implications for Nigeria Society. It will be absurd indeed to discuss about Ethics and Society without talking about the concept of human nature. In other words, there is no philosophy of life without a theory of human nature. Human nature can be defined as the psychological and social qualities that characterized humankind, especially in contrast with other living things. The problem here is that Hobbes believes that the state of nature (...) was the worst case scenario. Hobbes was ready to sacrifice all of his freedom to avoid the state of nature. Applying this position to the Nigerian society, it is glaring that this view gives justification to authoritarian government and tyranny. This work therefore intends to expose Hobbes concept of human nature and then apply his view to moral issues in Nigeria society. Hobbes view of human nature has a much laudable appeal which can make available a structure for modern day politics in Nigeria. Notwithstanding the issues inherent in Hobbes concept of human nature it could be used as a yardstick in analyzing some perennial, moral and political issues in Nigeria society. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este artículo se ocupa de la doctrina del reconocimiento que Hobbes dejó claramente insinuada a lo largo de sus escritos políticos. Para ello, aborda la exposición sistemática del canon de "leyes naturales" que elaborara Hobbes en obras como Elementos de Derecho Natural y Político, Tratado sobre el Ciudadano y Leviatán. Nuestra tesis de fondo es que la exposición de estas leyes, llamadas también por Hobbes "leyes morales", lleva al autor a postular la idea de que la "igualdad natural" de (...) los hombres, por la cual entiende la igualdad de derechos, no ya la igualdad de poder, solo se ve asegurada en la medida en que los individuos se reconozcan intersubjetivamente como portadores de los mismos derechos que, en tanto que hombres, les pertenecen. La tesis señalada pretende evidenciar que, contrario a lo que expone la lectura tradicional de Hobbes, que se concentra en la índole absolutista del poder, Hobbes remonta la posibilidad misma de la vida civil y política, no ya a mediación del Estado absoluto y su poder coercitivo, sino al reconocimiento intersubjetivo de los derechos, el cual obtiene su fuerza normativa de la conciencia moral de cada hombre. Este artículo se propone mostrar que con su postulado Hobbes logra esbozar una protomoral del reconocimiento que repercutiría en el discurso filosófico de la modernidad. Este propósito es uno con el de mostrar las dificultades, las tensiones y los límites del planteamiento hobbesiano. ABSTRACT This paper deals with the doctrine of recognition that Hobbes clearly implied throughout his political writings. To this end, it deals with the systematic exposition of the canon of "natural laws" that Hobbes elaborated in works such as Elements of Natural and Political Law, Treatise on the Citizen and the Leviathan. Our underlying thesis is that the exposition of these laws, also called "moral laws" by Hobbes, leads the author to postulate the idea that the "natural equality" of men, by which he understands equality of rights, not equality of power, is only assured to the extent that individuals are intersubjectively recognized as bearers of the same rights that, as men, belong to them. This thesis seeks to show that, contrary to the traditional reading of Hobbes, which concentrates on the absolutist nature of power, Hobbes traces the very possibility ofcivil and political life, not to the mediation of the absolute State and its coercive power, but to the intersubjective recognition of rights, which obtains its normative force from the moral conscience of each man. The present article intends to show that with its postulate, Hobbes manages to outline a protomoral of recognition, which would not remain without repercussion in the philosophical discourse of modernity. This purpose is one with the one to show the difficulties, the tensions and the limits of the Hobbesian approach. (shrink)

Thomas Hobbes has recently been cast as one of the forefathers of political realism. This article evaluates his place in the realist tradition by focusing on three key themes: the priority of legitimacy over justice, the relation between ethics and politics, and the place of imagination in politics. The thread uniting these themes is the importance Hobbes placed on achieving a moral consensus around peaceful coexistence, a point which distances him from realists who view the two as competing goals of (...) politics. The article maintains that only a qualified version of the autonomy of the political position can be attributed to Hobbes, while arguing more generally that attending to the relation between ethics and politics is central to assessing his liberal credentials from a realist perspective. Against the prevalent reading of Hobbes as a hypothetical contract theorist, the article proceeds to show that the place of consent in his theory is better understood as part of his wider goal of transforming the imagination of his audience: a goal which is animated by concerns that realists share. (shrink)

This article explores the conceptual relations Hobbes perceived between justice, law, and property rights. I argue that Hobbes developed three distinct arguments for the State-dependency of property over time: the Security, Precision and Creation Argument. On the last and most radical argument, the sovereign creates all property rights ex nihilo through distributive civil laws. Hobbes did not achieve this radically conventionalist position easily: it was not defended consistently until the redefinition of distributive justice as a virtue of arbitrators in Leviathan. (...) The argument is partly advanced as a critique of C.B. Macpherson’s possessive individualist reading of Hobbes. (shrink)

The article investigates whether Hobbes’s political theory gives us reason to expect the systematic subordination of women. It argues that who dominates whom is a matter of victory in the quest to pull allies into ordered alliances. The primary means of gaining allies—force and wiles—depend on both skill-fitness and affective fitness. The analyses suggest that it is sex-linked and gender-linked differences in affective fitness—particularly in the intensity of men’s desire to use religious wiles—that most plausibly explain the subjection of women, (...) both across the spectrum of states of nature and within civil societies. Although Hobbes’s political theory enables us to make sense of how it happened, there is nothing in that theory that either necessitates or should cause us to expect the systematic subordination of women. (shrink)

This article challenges the idea that Hobbes presents a negative anthropology and shows, to the contrary, that there is a thick web of social relations in his state of nature and laws of nature. It considers the contradiction between human natural equality claimed by Hobbes, and female subjection that de facto characterizes most of his passages on gender relations. The key to this puzzle is found in comparison of the notions of conquest and consent, and of acquisition and institution, comparisons (...) that establish a similarity between paternal authority and despotic dominion. A step towards the solution is provided by the hypothesis that the divide between “vainglorious” and “moderate” is gendered, with women more disposed to moderation than men. This can be explained by the idea that, “for society’s sake,” women in the state of nature appreciate more the advantages of long-term cooperation, even at the price of some subordination. (shrink)

Despite the vast amount of scholarship on Hobbes’s philosophy, his writings on sexuality have gone largely unexplored. This paper offers an interpretation of Hobbes’s writing on that topic. I argue that if we pay attention to his remarks on sexuality, we can retrieve a coherent account of sexual morality, one that takes a strong stance against doctrines of natural sexual morality, replacing them with a commitment to positivism about sexual norms. With this reconstruction of the Hobbesian view of sexual morality (...) in hand, I conclude by exploring some of its implications from a contemporary feminist perspective. (shrink)

This essay argues that Hobbes’s work as a translator was fundamental to his mature political philosophy. A proper appreciation for the significance of Hobbes’s lifelong engagement with the politics of translation clarifies both the relationship between Hobbes’s humanist and scientific work, and the meaning of his simultaneous critique and use of rhetoric in his political writings. Against the interpretation held by many scholars that Hobbes simply traded his early humanist interests for his mature political and scientific views, I demonstrate that (...) Hobbes was consistently concerned with the political instability generated by the vernacular translation of classical Greek and Roman texts. In responding to this instability, Hobbes developed his geometrical approach to speech while also, through his analysis of the relationship between translation and metaphor, finding ways to employ humanist rhetorical techniques consistent with this approach. Yet I show that Hobbes continued to rely on translation in areas of speech where he thought science alone could not provide persuasive answers. (shrink)

Στην παρούσα ανακοίνωση θα μελετήσουμε την έννοια της αυτοσυντήρησης και τον τρόπο με τον οποίο επηρεάζει το πολιτειακό σύστημα, κατά τον Thomas Hobbes. Οι άνθρωποι χαρακτηρίζονται από πρωτόγονα πάθη. Προκειμένου να εξασφαλίσουν την επιβίωσή τους, εκχωρούν το σύνολο των δικαιωμάτων τους σε ένα μονάρχη και οργανώνονται σε κοινωνίες. Ο μονάρχης είναι υπεύθυνος για τη θέσπιση νόμων, τη συμπεριφορά των υπηκόων του και γενικότερα τη λειτουργία της κοινωνίας. Η εξουσία του είναι αδιαπέραστη, αλλά δικαιολογείται υπό το πρίσμα ενός αρμονικού κοινωνικού βίου (...) που προσφέρει η δύναμή του. Σε αυτήν την μοναρχική κοινωνία οι άνθρωποι ελαχιστοποιούν τις «φυσικές» τους τάσεις, δηλαδή τα βίαια ένστικτά τους, και αισθάνονται ασφάλεια, αφού δεν κινδυνεύουν να χάσουν τη ζωή τους είτε από εσωτερικούς είτε από εξωτερικούς εχθρούς. Θα προσπαθήσουμε να καταστήσουμε σαφές ότι ο Hobbes οργάνωσε το σύνολο των πολιτικών του ιδεών, έχοντας ως αρχή την προστασία της ανθρώπινης ζωής, παραβλέποντας με αυτόν τον τρόπο άλλες αξίες, όπως την ελευθερία και την αυτοδιάθεση. (shrink)

Contra Quentin Skinner’s and David Runciman’s influential accounts that aim to prove what kind of person the Hobbesian state is, in Leviathan Thomas Hobbes compares a commonwealth to an artificial man or an artificial God, but never to an artificial person, nor to a fictitious person. The commonwealth, therefore, should never be constrained to its persona civitatis since, besides its group personality, it also comprises “the multitude”, i.e. flesh and blood people disposed to act in a certain way. The analysis (...) of Hobbes’s definition of a commonwealth will show that, although group personality symbolises unity through representation and although it is essential that this unity exists, we cannot simply identify it with the state. Hobbes’s state, therefore, should be defined as an entity that encompasses both material and formal elements. (shrink)

I discuss the basic conditions that allow us to grasp Hobbes's theory of the State from the standpoint of the imagination. I employ three interpretative points of view. First, I consider the role played by the concepts "person," "representation," and "theatre" in the institution of the social and political structure of the State. Second, I discuss the metaphorical value of the State, the persuasive function of which is derived from the biblical image of 'Leviathan.' Third, I consider the role taken (...) by the counsellors of the State in the creation of images oriented toward obedience. In this way I attempt to demonstrate that the Hobbesian State can no longer be taken as an abstraction, but as a concrete result constituted by human nature as formulated by the imagination. Hence, one can understand Hobbes as extending the interpretation of modern political thought beyond the linguistic imperative of univocity. In this way we can grasp Hobbes's importance for the modern age. (shrink)

Decía Aristóteles en la Ética a Nicómaco que "puede verse en los viajes lejanos cuán familiar y amigo es todo hombre para el hombre" en una experiencia contraria a la que Hobbes manifesta cuando asegura que el hombre es un lobo para el hombre. Aristóteles y Hobbes, como vemos en El Vizconde demediado de Calvino, se encuentran siempre presentes en la historia de la humanidad. Por ello es preciso preguntarse qué puede hacer la educación para promover ciudadanos solidarios, preocupados de (...) la suerte de los otros, en vez de individuos egoístas, encerrados en sus intereses propios. En un Congreso de Filosofía, no se trata de analizar estrategias didácticas sino de discutir las bases teóricas de una educación orientada a alcanzar los fines señalados. En este sentido, lo que pretendemos ofrecer es un concepto de ciudadanía a la altura de nuestros tiempos, que están preocupados tanto por los Derechos Humanos como por la solidaridad y la justicia social. La ciudadanía es, antes que cualquier otra cosa, un status jurídico. Todo ciudadano tiene un peculiar conjunto de derechos y libertades. Cuáles sean tales derechos y libertades es algo que reclama urgentemente una reformulación objetiva, que no pretenda-como pide Dahrendorf-esconder turbios intereses. Limitémonos a recordar las diversas generaciones de derechos que se han producido en los últimos dos siglos, a la vez que realizamos dos observaciones. La primera es que no hay derechos y libertades que no estén unidos a deberes y responsabilidades. La segunda es que el status jurídico a que nos referimos es de la persona individual. Hablar de ciudadano significa, efectivamente, dar una supremacía al individuo frente a sus grupos de pertenencia. Ahora bien, una cosa es atribuir la preeminencia al individuo y otra muy distinta creer que sólo el individuo tiene derechos. (shrink)

El propósito de esta contribución es demostrar el aporte del pensamiento hobbesiano a la idea de la igualdad entre hombres y mujeres, y confrontarlo con el de su objetor B. Spinoza. En sus obras Elements of Law y De Cive, Thomas Hobbes va a cuestionar la autoridad patriarcal y la desigualdad entre hombres y mujeres como expresión de una ley de la naturaleza. Por el contrario, va hablar del carácter convencional de la sujeción de las mujeres y va a exponer (...) que la familia funciona bajo la misma regla de operación de los Estados, mediante el pacto. Este aparte hobbesiano parece haber tenido poca resonancia entre los filósofos posteriores, pues el único que lo tuvo en cuenta para controvertirlo fue B. Spinoza. Spinoza combatió el punto de partida hobbesiano de que la desigualdad existente entre hombres y mujeres es producto de una convención o acuerdo. Pero, tal vez a su pesar convino que es la educación y la cultura los agentes de dicha diferenciación. (shrink)

I want to show the importance of the notion of conatus for Hobbes' political philosophy. According to Hobbes, all motion of bodies consists of elementary motions he called 'endeavors.' They are motions 'made in less space and time than can be given,' and they obey the law of persistence or inertia. A body strives to preserve its state and resist the causal power of other bodies. I call this the conatus-principle. Hobbes' argument for social contract and sovereign is based essentially (...) on this model. He proves that the natural conatus makes people strive to preserve their lives and therefore to get out of the destructive state of nature; commit to mutual contracts; keep the contracts unless some external cause otherwise determines; and establish a permanent sovereign power that Hobbes calls 'an artificial eternity of life.' All this is determined by the fundamental laws of nature, essentially, by the conatus-principle. I also show that the Prisoner's Dilemma interpretation of the Hobbesian state of nature does not represent all of the essential features of Hobbes' argument. (shrink)

Thomas Hobbes, like Francis Bacon before him, disliked Aristotle and scholasticism. They were both quite familiar with the objects of their dislike, having encountered Aristotle and scholasticism first hand at Oxford University. Bacon later described his tutors as "men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator." Bacon clearly saw the extent of new possibilities in thought. He held that Europeans of his time needed to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules into (...) an ocean of new learning. Hobbes, for similar reasons described the universities as places for the production of insignificant speech. Locke also echoed this rejection of scholasticism and contempt for the universities. The purpose of this paper is to talk about this rejection and the ways in which the continuing revolt against university education by Hobbes and Locke has contributed to a new view of the self. (shrink)

Christianity today is deeply conflicted and torn apart by conflicts that originated in the Post-Nicene era through Augustine, but were resurrected by Luther, and fully realized in Post-Reformation times by Hobbes. While Hobbes is the evil genius posthumously presiding over the post 9/11 world, he merely exploited flaws in Christian anthropology and political theory originating in Augustine’s City of God. While freedom to Hobbes ultimately means nothing more than the mad dream of escaping from the Dionysian furies that haunt reason (...) and bubble under the Western tradition, he artfully uses scripture, particularly the Old Testament, to justify his evil project of destroying the city, denying the soul and dealing a death blow to Jesus’ gospel. In this, Hobbes but follows in Augustine’s steps. It was the so-called Doctor of Grace who moved the West towards cynical political theology and corrupt clericalism. By his novel doctrine of original sin and belief that civic life could never be better than punishment for unrequited human depravity, Augustine justifies war, rationalizes slavery and valorizes ecclesiastical and political tyranny. Rather than trying to support communities that follow the loving spirit of the Gospel, his priority is to defend dire dogma and uphold centralizing Roman hegemony. As a result, Africa was lost to Islam and fascism would get theological support for its murderous mandates. I turn to Eric Voegelin for a less linear and non-dogmatic account of how the tradition can be understood. Voegelin’s closely argued insights into the order of reality and meaning of history may be the means by which the tradition can be saved. His philosophy of consciousness is the best response to the perennial desire to unite the Hobbesian militant state with a Manichean City of God. He protects Christianity from the constant Satanic temptation to turn the spirit of the Gospel into a literal law that condemns and kills. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the significance and originality of Hobbes’s use of ‘mind’, rather than ‘soul’, in his writings on human nature. To this end, his terminology in the discussion of the ‘faculties of the mind’ in The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic is considered in the context of English-language accounts of the ‘faculties of the soul’ in three widely-read works from the first half of the seventeenth century: Thomas Wright’s The Passions of the Minde in Generall, Robert Burton’s The (...) Anatomy of Melancholy, and Edward Reynolds’s A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man. For Hobbes’s contemporaries, man’s soul conveyed God-like powers to human beings; for Hobbes this is a dangerous idea. Accordingly, he establishes a sharp divide between ‘soul’ and ‘mind’, understanding the two terms to be concerned with two very different things: one with soteriology, the other with mental abilities. Like his contemporaries, Hobbes thought that understanding the faculties reveals the way to live a good life. But unlike them, his moral and political philosophy relies on citizens accepting that they are not like God, rather than looking to restore the ‘divine’ within themselves. (shrink)

The author of the monograph is a Candidate of Culturology, Associate Professor of Tyumen State University. The monograph tests approaches to the understanding of the essence of Hobbes’s and Locke’s ideas about miracles that are more flexible than a formational-evolutionist approach. The monograph presents the main characteristics of these ideas as Christian philosophical ones, shows their general Christian direction and the historiographic perspective of studying these ideas primarily in line with Christian philosophy. The monograph is intended for experts in the (...) history of philosophy, the history of ideas, theology, religious studies, historical anthropology, as well as for those interested in the problems of historical-philosophical knowledge. Автор монографии – кандидат культурологии, доцент Тюменского государственного университета. В монографии апробируются более гибкие подходы к пониманию сущности идей Гоббса и Локка о чудесах по сравнению с формационно-эволюционистским подходом. Представлены основные характеристики идей Гоббса и Локка о чудесах как христианских философских идей. Показана общехристианская направленность идей Гоббса и Локка о чудесах и историографическая перспективность изучения этих идей в первую очередь как христианских философских идей. Монография рассчитана на специалистов в области истории философии, истории идей, теологии, религиоведения, исторической антропологии, а также на всех, кто интересуется проблемами историко-философского знания. (shrink)

European Journal of Philosophy, EarlyView.

European Journal of Philosophy, EarlyView.

Arash Abizadeh's main thesis is that Hobbes severed juridical obligation—a covenant-created practice of second-personal accountability—from allegedly prudential natural law, marking a "watershed" separation of the right from the good. Daniel Eggers, Mark Peacock, and David D. Raphael fruitfully explored that thesis. The proposed independence is doubtful because natural law both underwrites and constrains covenant: "a...

It is refreshing to read fifteen erudite articles written by seasoned experts and promising young scholars who engage the wide-ranging question of the intersection of religion and politics in Hobbes's works. The free standing arguments are not framed by Hobbes's alleged religious sincerity, or by a priori conceptions of natural law, or some modernization thesis. This work is therefore a must-read for scholars yearning to explore Hobbes's religious politics in new ways. I hope it inspires more volumes, possibly organized around (...) narrower religious topics.Johan Olsthoorn argues that Hobbes's theory of representation takes him beyond Erastianism to the stronger claim of church-state identity... (shrink)

The book offers the first analysis of the influence exercised by the concept of space on the emergence and continuing operation of international law. By adopting a historical perspective and analysing work of two central early modern thinkers – Leibniz and Hobbes – it offers a significant addition to a limited range of resources on early modern history of international law. The book traces links between concepts of space, universality, human cognition, law, and international law in these two early modern (...) thinkers in a comparative fashion. Through this analysis, the book demonstrates the dependency of the contemporary international law on the Hobbesian concept of space. Although some Leibnizian elements continue to operate, they are distorted. This continuing operation of Leibnizian elements is explained by the inability of international law, which is based on the Hobbesian concept of space, to ensure universality of its normative foundation. (shrink)

Conceito oriundo do debate a respeito do movimento, o conatus, entendido como inclinação ou esforço, será um dos temas centrais da física seiscentista. Este artigo pretende explicitar o contexto de elaboração do conceito de conatus no século XVII, ou pelo menos na obra de três de seus principais filósofos: Descartes, Hobbes e Espinosa. Em Descartes, o conceito de conatus ainda se separa do conceito de movimento propriamente dito. Tal separação desaparece em Hobbes, para quem o conatus será apresentado como um (...) movimento ínfimo, com consequências não só para a Física, mas também para a Ética e a Política. Com Espinosa, por sua vez, o conceito ganhará contornos nitidamente ontológicos, tornando-se a chave para entender a essência das coisas singulares. (shrink)

We do not generally take the Hobbesian project to be one that encourages human flourishing. I will argue that it is; indeed, I will propose that Hobbes attempts the first modern project to provide for the possibility of the diversity of human flourishing in the civil state.

This book sets out to re-examine the foundations of Thomas Hobbes’s political philosophy, and to develop a Hobbesian normative theory of international relations. Its central thesis is that two concepts – anarchy and authority – constitute the core of Hobbes's political philosophy whose aim is to justify the state. The Hobbesian state is a type of authority (juridical, public, coercive, and supreme) which emerges under conditions of anarchy ('state of nature'). A state-of-nature argument makes a difference because it justifies authority (...) without appeal to moral obligation. The book shows that the closest analogue of a Hobbesian authority in international relations is Kant's confederation of free states, where states enjoy 'anarchical' (equal) freedom. At present, this crucial form of freedom is being threatened by economic processes of globalisation, and by the resurgence of private authority across state borders. (shrink)

Paul Sagar's The Opinion of Mankind serves as an excellent synthesis of the topics of sociability and sovereignty in the history of modern political thought. The main thrust of the book is to marshal David Hume's and Adam Smith's resources as first-rate philosophers on behalf of a first-rate political theory. According to Sagar, Hume's and Smith's rich accounts of human sociability, sentiment, and historical contingency provide the foundations for what Sagar calls "the state without sovereignty". By this, he means that (...) neither Hume nor Smith treat sovereignty as an a priori condition for state formation. Instead, Hume and Smith acknowledge states as modern political entities that manage themselves... (shrink)

Rajesh Sampath ABSTRACT: This paper examines Ambedkar’s critical view of certain distortions, contradictions, and instabilities in democratic norms, constitutional validity, and citizens’ rights in India’s secular, constitutional, legal, pluralistic democracy. Through a strident deconstruction utilizing Hegelian resources, the paper exposes the contortions and contradictions underpinning Hindu metaphysics in some of its most abstract texts, namely...