Hobbes Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

"Michel Weber et Pierfrancesco Basile (sous la direction de), Chromatikon III. Annuaire de la philosophie en procès — Yearbook of Philosophy in Process, Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2007. (300 p. ; ISBN... more

“Power is war, the continuation of war by other means”: Foucault’s reversal of Clausewitz’s formula has become a staple of critical theory — but it remains highly problematic on a conceptual level. Elaborated during Foucault’s 1976... more

“Power is war, the continuation of war by other means”: Foucault’s reversal of Clausewitz’s formula has become a staple of critical theory — but it remains highly problematic on a conceptual level. Elaborated during Foucault’s 1976 lectures (“Society Must Be Defended”), this work-hypothesis theorises “basic warfare” [la guerre fondamentale] as the teleological horizon of socio-political relations. Following Boulainvilliers, Foucault champions this polemological approach, conceived as a purely descriptive discourse on “real” politics and war, against the philosophico-juridical conceptuality attached to liberal society (Hobbes’s Leviathan being here the prime example).
However, in doing so, Foucault did not interrogate the conceptual validity of notions such as power and war, therefore interlinking them without questioning their ontological status. This problematic conflation was partly rectified in 1982, as Foucault proposed a more dynamic definition of power relations: “actions over potential actions”.
I argue, somewhat polemically, that Foucault’s hermeneutics of power still involves a teleological violence, dependent on a polemological representation of human relations as essentially instrumental: this resembles what Derrida names, in “Heidegger’s Ear”, an “anthropolemology”. However, I show that all conceptualisation of power implies its self-deconstruction. This self-deconstructive (or autoimmune) structure supposes an archi-originary unpower prior to power: power presupposes an excess within power, an excessive force, another violence making it both possible and impossible. There is something within power located “beyond the power principle” (Derrida). This (self-)excess signifies a limitless resistantiality co-extensive with power-relationality. It also allows the reversal of pólemos into its opposite, as unpower opens politics and warfare to the messianic call of a pre-political, pre-ontological disruption: the archi-originary force of différance. This force, unconditional, challenges Foucault’s conceptualisations of power, suggesting an originary performativity located before or beyond hermeneutics of power-knowledge, disrupting theoreticity as well as empiricity by pointing to their ontological complicity.
The bulk of this essay is dedicated to sketching the theoretical implications of this deconstructive reading of Foucault with respect to the methodology and conceptuality of political science and social theory.

This article traces the radical devaluation of the phantasm throughout Western civilization. With the help of Nietzsche's critical perspective, I develop a notion of hystery as the series of collective traumas repeated in each... more

This article traces the radical devaluation of the phantasm throughout Western civilization. With the help of Nietzsche's critical perspective, I develop a notion of hystery as the series of collective traumas repeated in each individual's growth, whereby the phantasm changes value from psychosomatic interface, to evil incarnate, to disease of learning. Beginning with the Classical episteme represented by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, then moving up through the Christian era, I focus primarily on Enlightenment thinkers such as Hobbes and Bacon, who represent the last nail in the imagination's coffin. The next section examines Nietzsche's rediscovery of the phantasm and the theoretical contributions of post-structuralism that follow in Nietzsche's wake. Juxtaposing Bataille and Deleuze, I look at Deleuze's early enthusiasm and ultimate betrayal of the phantasm, and I posit Bataille's emphasis on the affective force of the mythological phantasm as an insurrection to reclaim our experience and life along with it. The article ends with speculation, offering Bruno's art of memory as an ontic and epistemic alternative to dominant Western hystery, other pasts opening to other possible futures, an ungrounding that paradoxically leads to a restoration of the human house in a re-enchanted cosmos.

La emergencia del iusnaturalismo moderno. La gran dicotomía. El Estado de Naturaleza. Variaciones y debates. Thomas Hobbes: un nuevo tipo de pacto social. El Leviatán. John Locke y la afirmación de la libertad. Segundo tratado sobre el... more

La emergencia del iusnaturalismo moderno. La gran dicotomía. El Estado de Naturaleza. Variaciones y debates. Thomas Hobbes: un nuevo tipo de pacto social. El Leviatán. John Locke y la afirmación de la libertad. Segundo tratado sobre el gobierno civil. Locke frente a Hobbes.

In this chapter, I bring Hobbes’s theory of language into dialogue with his Leviathan, illuminating a novel justification for the existence and necessity of the nation-state. Employing Hobbes’s account of propositions in De Corpore, I... more

In this chapter, I bring Hobbes’s theory of language into dialogue with his Leviathan, illuminating a novel justification for the existence and necessity of the nation-state. Employing Hobbes’s account of propositions in De Corpore, I reinterpret Leviathan’s laws of nature as hypothetical propositions, which become necessarily true—or obligatory—for men only when an absolute authority already exists. This reveals that the necessity of natural law and, more radically, reasonable man himself is possible, or made true, only through the existence of the state. Man is not by nature a political animal, but man, for Hobbes, is made by politics.

Action-­sentences about states, such as 'North Korea conducted a nuclear test', are ubiquitous in discourse about international relations. Although there has been a great deal of debate in IR about whether states are agents or actors, the... more

Action-­sentences about states, such as 'North Korea conducted a nuclear test', are ubiquitous in discourse about international relations. Although there has been a great deal of debate in IR about whether states are agents or actors, the question of how to interpret action-­sentences about states has been treated as secondary or epiphenomenal. This article focuses on our practices of speaking and writing about the state rather than the ontology of the state. It uses Hobbes' theory of attributed action to develop a typology of action-‐sentences and to analyze action-sentences about states. These sentences are not shorthand for action-­sentences about individuals, as proponents of the metaphorical interpretation suggest. Nor do they describe the actions of singular agents, as proponents of the literal interpretation suggest. The central argument is that action-­sentences about states are 'attributive', much like sentences about principals who act vicariously through agents: they identify the 'owners' of actions—the entities that are responsible for them—rather than the agents that perform the actions. Our practice of ascribing actions to states is not merely figurative, but nor does it presuppose that states are corporate agents.

En Ideals as Interests in Hobbes’s Leviathan, Sharon Ann Lloyd desarrolla una novedosa interpretación del problema político de Hobbes y de la solución que él elabora en El Leviatán. Lloyd se aparta de las interpretaciones estándares sobre... more

En Ideals as Interests in Hobbes’s Leviathan, Sharon Ann Lloyd desarrolla una novedosa interpretación del problema político de Hobbes y de la solución que él elabora en El Leviatán. Lloyd se aparta de las interpretaciones estándares sobre Hobbes al sostener que el hombre hobbesiano es capaz de defender intereses transcendentales (es decir, intereses que no encajan en el esquema del deseo de autoconservación) y que la contradicción entre estos intereses constituye la principal amenaza del orden social. En contra de la interpretación estándar, Lloyd afirma que el conflicto no se circunscribe al estado de naturaleza y que el problema fundamental de la teoría política de Hobbes concierne al establecimiento y el mantenimiento del orden social. De acuerdo con Lloyd, la solución del desorden social se lleva a cabo no sólo mediante estrategias realistas sino además mediante estrategias pedagógicas.

The contemporary Left almost universally takes for granted that some form of education is a good thing. Consider the slogans of “defend public education” and “education not incarceration.” I contend that this romanticizing of education... more

The contemporary Left almost universally takes for granted that some form of education is a good thing. Consider the slogans of “defend public education” and “education not incarceration.” I contend that this romanticizing of education creates problems for the Left’s projects. Paraphrasing Audre Lorde, they attempt to “use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house.” In this paper, looking at two theorists of modern government, Hobbes and Locke, I show how the purposes of their theories of education were tied up with proto-capitalist, counter-revolutionary reactions to anti-feudal struggles. Comparing them, I reveal how the counter-revolutionary character of education that was clear in Hobbes continues in Locke but in a more surreptitious way that sets up some of the basic elements of education as we know it today. Locke promotes education as a technology of the self for individualizing, privatizing, and de-politicizing the problem of managing the contradictions of the modernist/colonial world order. Through education’s collaboratively constructed emotional credit/debt economy, the ‘self’ is supposed to become autonomous, sovereign, and independent enough to self-govern its own boundaries. Divisions of gender, class, and race allow Locke to set up a bounded subject for the educator. Those who are excluded from this subject-form are the co-constitutive Others of education.

Naturrecht AUFSATZSAMMLUNG 19-3 Leibniz und das Naturrecht / hrsg. von Luca Basso.-Stuttgart : Steiner, 2019.-201 S. ; 24 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Sonder-hefte ; 54).-ISBN 978-3-515-12288-7 : EUR 44.00 [#6467] Die Geschichte des... more

Naturrecht AUFSATZSAMMLUNG 19-3 Leibniz und das Naturrecht / hrsg. von Luca Basso.-Stuttgart : Steiner, 2019.-201 S. ; 24 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Sonder-hefte ; 54).-ISBN 978-3-515-12288-7 : EUR 44.00 [#6467] Die Geschichte des Naturrechts ist lang, und in der Frühen Neuzeit machte diese Denkfigur grundlegende Änderungen durch. Immer aber blieb das Na-turrecht als eine Herausforderung bestehen, an der man sich rechtsphi-lophisch, politiktheoretisch oder auch theologisch abarbeiten mußte. Daher kann es nicht verwundern, daß viele Denker in einem mehr oder weniger engen Bezug zum naturrechtlichen Denken stehen, so eben auch Leibniz, dem der vorliegende Band 1-er geht auf einen Kongreß in Padua 2016 zu-rück-in der verdienstvollen Reihe der Sonderhefte der Studia Leibnitiana nachgeht. 2 Dabei stehen auch manche anderen Denker zur Diskussion, zu denen sich Leibniz in ein kritisches Verhältnis setzen mußte. So wird er denn auch hier im Zusammenhang mit dem Naturrecht konfrontiert mit Aristoteles, Augusti-1 Inhaltsverzeichnis: https://d-nb.info/1176674730/04 2 Zuletzt wurden besprochen: Leibniz and the European encounter with China : 300 years of "Discours sur la théologie naturelle des Chinois" / Wenchao Li (Hg.).-Stuttgart : Steiner, 2017.-295 S. ; 24 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Sonderhefte ; 52).-ISBN 978-3-515-11733-3 : EUR 56.00 [#5645].-Rez.: IFB 18-2 http://informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=9011-Leibniz im Lichte der Theologien / Wenchao Li ; Hartmut Rudolph (Hg.).-Stuttgart : Stei-ner, 2017.-345 S. ; 25 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Supplementa ; 40).-ISBN 978-3-515-11465-3 : EUR 62.00 [#5215].-Rez.: IFB 18-2 http://informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=9010-Leibniz in Latenz : Überlieferungsbildung als Rezeption (1716-1740) / Nora Gädeke ; Wenchao Li (Hg.).-Stuttgart : Stei-ner, 2017.-262 S. : Faks., Diagramme ; 24 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Sonderhefte ; 50).-ISBN 978-3-515-11474-5 : EUR 46.00 [#5484],. Rez.: IFB 17-4 http://informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=8729-Leibniz et Bayle : confrontation et dialogue / éd. par Christian Leduc ...-Stuttgart : Steiner, 2015.-452 S. ; 24 cm.-(Studia Leibnitiana : Sonderhefte ; 43).

Uma das principais tarefas da filosofia política da modernidade era lançar-se à busca por uma explicação racional acerca do surgimento da sociedade civil e do Estado. Na tentativa de cumprir essa tarefa, modelos antropológicos sobre a... more

Uma das principais tarefas da filosofia política da modernidade era lançar-se à busca por uma explicação racional acerca do surgimento da sociedade civil e do Estado. Na tentativa de cumprir essa tarefa, modelos antropológicos sobre a natureza do homem foram desenvolvidos, no sentido de estabelecer uma conexão lógica entre o comportamento do homem antes e depois da constituição dos vínculos civis. Esse modo de explicação da natureza humana, no contexto Moderno, ficou genericamente conhecido como Individualismo (Atomismo), e caracterizava o homem como um ser dotado de uma racionalidade que possibilitava sua autossuficiência perante fins coletivos. O que se pretende defender nesta comunicação, é que o modelo antropológico Hobbesiano, apresentado na obra " Leviatã " , é um exemplo desse tipo de individualismo/atomismo. Ao representar o desenrolar da natureza humana a partir da caracterização de três estados, quais sejam, o homem, a pessoa e o súdito, Hobbes elabora uma teoria mecanicista que explica a ação humana como um movimento corporal, dotado de sensação, imaginação, linguagem e raciocínio, cujo impulso essencial é perseverar sua existência enquanto corpo. Esse 'manter-se vivo', entretanto, implica envolver-se em uma complexa rede de relações de poder, sejam elas físicas ou jurídicas (potentia e potestas), que culminam na necessidade de uma centralização única dessa força na figura do Soberano. A hipótese, portanto, é a de que cada um dos estados antropológicos hobbesianos (homem, pessoa e súdito) implicam em relações sociais de poder que perpetuam uma estrutura atomista de subjetividade.

1. Quote/Unquote Philosophers like other people often have a weakness for quiz-shows. And like the crew in the Hunting of the Snark, they are all of them fond of quotations 1 . So I begin with a quotation and a question. The quotation... more

1. Quote/Unquote Philosophers like other people often have a weakness for quiz-shows. And like the crew in the Hunting of the Snark, they are all of them fond of quotations 1 . So I begin with a quotation and a question. The quotation comes from a famous o indeed a ‘superstar’ o text. But which text? Which famous writer indicted these lines? The purpose of the universal jargon was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of logical empiricism, but to make other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when the universal jargon had been adopted for all and the metaphysically infected terminology forgotten, a metaphysical thought o that is a thought diverging from what logical empiricism regarded as genuinely thinkable o should be literally unthinkable, at least in so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a log...

Citar: de Zavalía Dujovne, D. “Reseña de Thomas Hobbes, Elementos filosóficos. Del ciudadano, Buenos Aires, Hydra, 2010. Traducción, prólogo y glosario de Andrés Rosler. Notas de Andrés Rosler y Sebastián Abad” en Boletín de la Asociación... more

Citar: de Zavalía Dujovne, D. “Reseña de Thomas Hobbes, Elementos filosóficos. Del ciudadano, Buenos Aires, Hydra, 2010. Traducción, prólogo y glosario de Andrés Rosler. Notas de Andrés Rosler y Sebastián Abad” en Boletín de la Asociación de Estudios Hobbesianos, Nº31, 2011, pp. 15-16, ISSN: 1853-8169

Hobbes concept of science is a useful key to understand the main thesis of his political doctrine. Although Hobbes himself was not always coherent with his own notion of science, many of its most important concepts, such as social... more

Hobbes concept of science is a useful key to understand the main thesis of his political doctrine. Although Hobbes himself was not always coherent with his own notion of science, many of its most important concepts, such as social contract, sovereignity and law, can be explained as conclusions of his view of science as creative reasoning and rigourous deduction with a practical purpose. According to this view, civil science is the higher form of human knowledge.

Programa de curso "Violencia y política".
Segundo semestre 2015. Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, sede Viña del Mar.

Many critics, Descartes himself included, have seen Hobbes as uncharitable or even incoherent in his Objections to the Meditations on First Philosophy. I argue that when understood within the wider context of his views of the late 1630s... more

Many critics, Descartes himself included, have seen Hobbes as uncharitable or even incoherent in his Objections to the Meditations on First Philosophy. I argue that when understood within the wider context of his views of the late 1630s and early 1640s, Hobbes's Objections are coherent and reflect his goal of providing an epistemology consistent with a mechanical philosophy. I demonstrate the importance of this epistemology for understanding his Fourth Objection concerning the nature of the wax and contend that Hobbes's brief claims in that Objection are best understood as a summary of the mechanism for scientific knowledge found in his broader work. Far from displaying his confusion, Hobbes's Fourth Objection in fact pinpoints a key weakness of Descartes's faculty psychology: its unintelligibility within a mechanical philosophy.

'Hume has no theory of sovereignty. As a result he is frequently supposed to lack a proper theory of politics, providing only a political sociology incapable of addressing the central normative significance of political obligation in... more

'Hume has no theory of sovereignty. As a result he is frequently supposed to lack a proper theory of politics, providing only a political sociology incapable of addressing the central normative significance of political obligation in thinking about the modern state. This is a serious mistake. Hume addressed himself directly to the question of political obligation, but his argument was predicated upon a prior reconfiguration of our thinking about the nature, role, and power of philosophy. In coming to appreciate this prior reconfiguration, in particular via a re-examination of Hume's indirect engagement with Locke's earlier juridical political theory, we can properly appreciate Hume as advancing a radically innovative theory of political obligation. What emerges is the possibility of a theory of the state without sovereignty. As well as thereby revealing Hume to be a major and highly original post-Hobbesian theorist of the state, we are invited to consider whether present political theory would do better by adopting Hume's recommended philosophical reconceptualisation.'

Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin Gish Part One: The Heart Chapter 2: "The Very Heart of Loss": Love and Politics in Antony and Cleopatra Joseph Alulis Chapter 3:... more

Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin Gish Part One: The Heart Chapter 2: "The Very Heart of Loss": Love and Politics in Antony and Cleopatra Joseph Alulis Chapter 3: Julius Caesar: The Problem of Classical Republicanism Timothy Burns Chapter 4: Who is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Nasser Behnegar Chapter 5: Love, Honor,and Community in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Pamela Jensen Part Two: The Limbs Chapter 6: At War 'Twixt Will and Will Not: Government, Marriage, and Grace in Measure for Measure Peter Meilaender Chapter 7: Trojan Horse or Troilus' Whore? Pandering Statecraft and Political Stagecraft in Troilus and Cressida Nalin Ranasinghe Chapter 8: Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece: Honor and Republicanism Robert Schaefer Chapter 9: Hotspur and Falstaff vs. The Politicians: Shakespeare's View of Honor Timothy Spiekerman Part Three: The Head Chapter 10: Shakespeare, Timon of...

This paper examines the comics series The Walking Dead, focusing on how the horror genre shapes and constrains the political meanings of the narrative. The demands of horror keeps the characters from escaping the state of nature, with the... more

This paper examines the comics series The Walking Dead, focusing on how the horror genre shapes and constrains the political meanings of the narrative. The demands of horror keeps the characters from escaping the state of nature, with the consequence that the narrative remains trapped within the narrow dilemmas of survival.

Communication dans le cadre du débat « Par-delà le Léviathan et la guerre civile. Une discussion sur le conflit, l’État et l’émancipation » co-organisé par le Groupe de Recherches Matérialistes et Bruxelles Laïque (Bruxelles,... more

Communication dans le cadre du débat « Par-delà le Léviathan et la guerre civile. Une discussion sur le conflit, l’État et l’émancipation » co-organisé par le Groupe de Recherches Matérialistes et Bruxelles Laïque (Bruxelles, Quincaillerie des Temps Présents, 05/12/15)

Does the Leviathan —the state— have the absolute and unlimited authority? Can the population fight against the authority of the state? Are they allowed to resist? Are they able to rebel? The aim of this final paper is to answer those and... more

Does the Leviathan —the state— have the absolute and unlimited authority? Can the population fight against the authority of the state? Are they allowed to resist? Are they able to rebel? The aim of this final paper is to answer those and more questions about the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and, most of all, how the English philosopher understands the civil disobedience, or the resistance, and which are the following consequences of disobeying for those individuals who decide to do it.

Em 2021, Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta escreveu e publicou o livro Os Dois Amigos: Ernesto de Sousa e Jorge Peixinho - em comemoração do centenário do artista visual e conceptual Ernesto de Sousa e também em memória do grande compositor... more

Em 2021, Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta escreveu e publicou o livro Os Dois Amigos: Ernesto de Sousa e Jorge Peixinho - em comemoração do centenário do artista visual e conceptual Ernesto de Sousa e também em memória do grande compositor Jorge Peixinho - ambos Portugueses, desaparecidos respectivamente em 1988 e 1995, e ambos amigos de Pimenta. Aliás, o compositor Jorge Peixinho era o grande amigo de Pimenta. Por ocasião do lançamento do livro, em junho de 2021, em Lisboa, Portugal, Emanuel Pimenta escreveu um texto sobre a liberdade - com o título Obediência e Liberdade - que pode ser considerado uma extensão do livro, mas também uma obra à parte.
Neste texto, Pimenta trabalha os conceitos das liberdades positiva e negativa, diferentemente das ideias de Isaiah Berlin. Ele também trata da Teoria dos Jogos, da Semiótica, do Direito e estabelece uma profunda ligação entre liberdade, diversidade, conhecimento, amizade e paz.
Estando para muito além de uma simples abordagem psicológica, sua reflexão lida com a lógica e pode ser compreendida tanto em respeito às transformações planetárias quanto em relação à experiência de vida das pessoas.

Thomas Hobbes is an exception among early political scientists in his affirmation of gender equality. Carole Pateman and Susan Okin acknowledge this but maintain that, in the final analysis, his gender egalitarianism is disingenuous.... more

Thomas Hobbes is an exception among early political scientists in his affirmation of gender equality. Carole Pateman and Susan Okin acknowledge this but maintain that, in the final analysis, his gender egalitarianism is disingenuous. There is certainly cause for suspicion. The history of political theory is replete with misogyny, and even theories that purport to be more egalitarian have had their sexist tendencies exposed on analysis. Such criticisms of Hobbes, however, are misplaced. In this essay, I explore the feminist possibilities in Hobbes's work, and argue that his affirmation of gender equality should be taken seriously. Far from reinforcing patriarchal relations, Hobbesian political theory demands a robust and substantive form of gender equality.

This paper focuses on Leibniz’s engagement with Thomas Hobbes’s political anthropology in the Mainz-period writings, and demonstrates that Leibniz tried to construct an alternative to the English philosopher by conceiving of a physically-... more

This paper focuses on Leibniz’s engagement with Thomas Hobbes’s political anthropology in the Mainz-period writings, and demonstrates that Leibniz tried to construct an alternative to the English philosopher by conceiving of a physically- and ontologically-grounded psychology of actions. I provide textual evidence of this attempt, and account for Leibniz’s rejection of Hobbes’s political theory and anthropological assumptions. In doing so, I refer to diverse aspects of Leibniz’s work, thereby highlighting his aspiration to congruity and consistency between different areas of investigation. Furthermore, Leibniz’s political writings and letters will reveal another—sometimes neglected— aspect of the issue: his concern to defend and legitimize the existence of pluralist and collective constitutional political systems like the Holy Roman Empire by providing the theoretical ground of their ability to last.

Hobbes’s fool of Leviathan, chapter xv, is no "follis", he is "insipiens", out of his mind. Paraphrasing Psalm 52:1: “The fool hath said in his heart there is no justice” , it is a charge of which Hobbes himself could be suspected. But in... more

Hobbes’s fool of Leviathan, chapter xv, is no "follis", he is "insipiens", out of his mind. Paraphrasing Psalm 52:1: “The fool hath said in his heart there is no justice” , it is a charge of which Hobbes himself could be suspected. But in fact we see that it is this startling claim on which his legal positivism rests.

A focal point of twentieth-century commentary on Hobbes has been the few paragraphs in chapter 15 of Leviathan where Hobbes presents the objections of someone he calls the Foole and then sets out to meet these objections. The Foole... more

A focal point of twentieth-century commentary on Hobbes has been the few paragraphs in chapter 15 of Leviathan where Hobbes presents the objections of someone he calls the Foole and then sets out to meet these objections. The Foole maintains that it is reasonable to break ...

The state of nature described in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) is that of violent conflict, a war of every man against every man. Hobbes gives three causes to the war in the state of nature, which are competition, diffidence, and glory.... more

The state of nature described in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) is that of violent conflict, a war of every man against every man.
Hobbes gives three causes to the war in the state of nature, which are competition, diffidence, and glory. In this paper I argue that the three causes of conflict in the state of nature are connected to every individual’s rational pursuit of self-preservation.
Some of Hobbes’ contemporary critics attempted to refute Hobbes’ description of the state of nature as a state of war by demonstrating that the state of nature wasn’t lacking resources, whereby violent competition was unnecessary for the self-preservation of individuals living in the state of nature. The contemporary critique of the state of nature reveals that the actions of the individuals in the state of nature varies according to the level of security they have for their lives.
Due to the actions individuals make in the state of nature to protect themselves and secure their self- preservation, I argue that the Prisoner’s Dilemma model used to describe the state of nature fails at two accounts:
i) The Prisoner’s Dilemma model cannot model the actions of rational individuals, whom are the
main type of individual in the state of nature.
ii) The Prisoner’s Dilemma model cannot model actions of individuals who enjoy some security for
their lives in the state of nature.
Due to the shortcomings of the Prisoner’s Dilemma model I argue that the state of nature in Leviathan is best translated into game theory by the Assurance Game model.

If the greatness of a philosophical work can be measured by the volume and vehemence of the public response, there is little question that Rousseau's Social Contract stands out as a masterpiece. Within a week of its publication in 1762 it... more

If the greatness of a philosophical work can be measured by the volume and vehemence of the public response, there is little question that Rousseau's Social Contract stands out as a masterpiece. Within a week of its publication in 1762 it was banished from France. Soon thereafter, Rousseau fled to Geneva, where he saw the book burned in public. At the same time, many of his contemporaries, such as Kant, considered Rousseau to be “the Newton of the moral world,” as he was the first philosopher to draw attention to the basic dignity of human nature. The Social Contract has never ceased to be read in the 250 years since it was written. Rousseau's “Social Contract”: An Introduction offers a thorough and systematic tour of this notoriously paradoxical and challenging text. David Lay Williams offers readers a chapter-by-chapter reading of the Social Contract, squarely confronting these interpretive obstacles, leaving no stones unturned. The conclusion connects Rousseau's text both to his important influences and those who took inspiration and sometimes exception to his arguments. The book also features a special extended appendix dedicated to outlining his famous conception of the general will, which has been the object of controversy since the Social Contract's publication.

Giambattista Vico and Thomas Hobbes both are known for the particular emphasis they put on the workings of imagination in human understanding. Their respective concepts of imagination are compared in this article, with attention to the... more

Giambattista Vico and Thomas Hobbes both are known for the particular emphasis they put on the workings of imagination in human understanding. Their respective concepts of imagination are compared in this article, with attention to the sensory basis and cultural products related to this capability. The connections and contrasts established in the analysis are contextualized by the notion of affective semiosis. An affective component can be traced at the basis of the process of image creation in both authors. The primary level of human semiotic activity where the most basic differentiation and identification processes take place must describe not only in terms of sensation but also affect, imagination, and memory. The expression of these processes on the level of culture is however understood and valued differently by Vico and Hobbes. Vico sees in myth and metaphor the necessary elements of imaginative sensemaking, for Hobbes they take the role of by-products in mind’s struggle toward rationality.

Western thought: the phrase immediately solicits the expression, ‘dead, White guys.’ The aim of this course is to equip students to analyze the ways in which ideas that seem outdated are still very much alive. Current debates about the... more

Western thought: the phrase immediately solicits the expression, ‘dead, White guys.’ The aim of this course is to equip students to analyze the ways in which ideas that seem outdated are still very much alive. Current debates about the ideal versus the real, faith versus reason, church versus state, religion versus science, and Christian virtue versus secular ethics, stem from distinctions set in motion centuries ago.

Hobbes, it will analyze Machiavelli's confounding concept of liberty, its meaning, expression and attainment through the dual analysis of states and the populace. Hobbesian absolute monarchy is suitable for the conservation and... more

Hobbes, it will analyze Machiavelli's confounding concept of liberty, its meaning, expression and attainment through the dual analysis of states and the populace. Hobbesian absolute monarchy is suitable for the conservation and utilization of his orderly " negative liberty " with the sole goal of securing peace and security for its subjects. Machiavelli's advocacy for the republic, as the only " free " form of government that provides the best political conditions for the exercise of freedom, is undermined and contradicted by his own account of human nature. This paper argues that Hobbes provides a more plausible definition of freedom, thus his argument for absolute monarchy is more consistent and convincing when juxtaposed to Machiavelli's account of republic, while both depart from the same pragmatic vision of human nature. This paper reveals Machiavelli's true intentions behind his advocacy for the deliberative assembly, the instrumental implementation of which promises the mobilization of support and resources for the state's imperial expansion. Machiavelli is less concerned with liberty for its sake, he is more captivated with its role in pursuing the end goals of state's expansion and maximization of state's power. This paper will conclude by illuminating the ambiguity of Machiavelli's perplexed inclinations towards " liberty of necessity " and " liberty of choice " for the states, thus unveiling the incompatibility of security and liberty as a dilemma in contemporary international politics.