Hobbes Thomas - Hobbes and the making of modern political thought

Hobbes and the Making of Modern Political Thought

Continuum Studies in British Philosophy

Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA

Continuum Studies in British Philosophy is a major monograph series from Continuum. The series features first-class scholarly research monographs across the field of British philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution to the field of philosophical research.

Applying Wittgenstein Rupert Read

Berkeley and Irish Philosophy David Berman

Berkeleys Philosophy of Spirit Talia Bettcher

Bertrand Russell, Language and Linguistic Theory Keith Green

Bertrand Russells Ethics Michael K. Potter

Boyle on Fire William Eaton

The Coherence of Hobbess Leviathan Eric Brandon

Doing Austin Justice Wilfrid Rumble

The Early Wittgenstein on Religion J. Mark Lazenby

F. P. Ramsey edited by Maria J. Frapolli

Francis Bacon and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge Dennis Desroches

Hume on God Timothy S. Yoder

Humes Social Philosophy Christopher Finlay

Humes Theory of Causation Angela Coventry

Idealist Political Philosophy Colin Tyler

Iris Murdochs Ethics Megan Laverty

John Stuart Mills Political Philosophy John Fitzpatrick

Matthew Tindal, Freethinker Stephen Lalor

The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer Michael Taylor

Popper, Objectivity and the Growth of Knowledge John H. Sceski

Rethinking Mills Ethics Colin Heydt

Russell and Wittgenstein on the Nature of Judgement Rosalind Carey

Russells Theory of Perception Sajahan Miah

Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Natural Philosophy Stephen J. Finn

Thomas Reids Ethics William C. Davis

Wittgenstein and Gadamer Chris Lawn

Wittgenstein and the Theory of Perception Justin Good

Wittgenstein at his Word Duncan Richter

Wittgenstein on Ethical Inquiry Jeremy Wisnewski

Wittgensteins Religious Point of View Tim Labron

Gordon Hull

Continuum International Publishing Group

www.continuumbooks.com

Gordon Hull 2009

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN-13: 978-1-4411-7319-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hull, Gordon, 1972

Hobbes and the making of modern political thought/Gordon Hull.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. 2. Biopolitics. 3. Political sciencePhilosophy.

I. Title.

B1247.H85 2009

320.1092dc22

2009007849

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group

This book is a genealogical narrative about the emergence of modern political philosophy. Both the rough outlines of the storyduring the seventeenth century, social contract theory emerges, replacing Aristotelianismand the names of many of the main players will be familiar. In the seventeenth century, in the history told by the victorious moderns, this story had all the trappings of a melodrama: Aristotle and his followers represented a monolithic horde of bad philosophical reasoning, the adoption of which had catastrophic effects on mind and city; the heroic restart of reason along proper lines held out the hope of rescuing humanity from its intellectual darkness. At the present historical juncture, as we become increasingly unsure of our own modernity and even of what the claim to be modern entails, while at the same time supposedly transitioning to a late-or postmodern condition, these seventeenth-century narratives deserve reconsideration.

A great deal of work has already been done in this regard, on Descartes in particular. My hope is that the present work will contribute to Hobbess inclusion in our reconsideration of the seventeenth century, and in understanding how philosophical positions carved out in that century continue to demand our attention today. Several intertwined threads are recurrent in the study: the elevation of construction (poiesis) as a metaphor for thought at the expense of classical models of intellection; the emergence of quantification (often in the guise of geometry), and in particular a growing willingness to treat subjectivity as quantifiable; the breakdown of the Aristotelian nature/art distinction, at the expense of nature; the decline of phronesis as a form of practical reason; the reconfiguration of the Aristotelian anima, which in Hobbess case involves a materialist psychology that elevates the importance of imagination; and the general ascendance of nominalist theses about language and mind. I begin with our ongoing fascination with Hobbes, and conclude by proposing what I take to be a causal reason for this fascination: not only is our age biopolitical but also Hobbes himself is among the first thoroughly biopolitical thinkers.

Writing on Hobbes induces a certain humility, not just because he is such a formidable thinker but also because so many others have written before. Many of these debts are recorded in the notes and bibliography, and without them, this book would not have been possible. My personal debts, incurred in conversations over the years, are sufficiently numerous that any attempt to record them all would fail. I would, however, like to explicitly acknowledge the generosity of a few individuals whose support of the project, and of my work more generally over the years, has gone well beyond the call of duty: Jay Bernstein, Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Gregg Horowitz, Warren Montag, Tim Reiss, and Tony Smith. My debt to Maya Socolovsky, my constant interlocutor and partner, is beyond what can be measured. Finally, my children, Ilan and Amia, both help me keep academic work in proper perspective and serve as a reminder of why it matters what kinds of worlds are dreamt of in our philosophies.

An earlier version of appeared as Hobbess Radical Nominalism, Epoch 11 (Fall 2006), pp. 20123.

Where possible, I follow convention in referring to historical sources (thus, for example, Bekker page numbers for Aristotle, chapter and paragraph for most of Hobbess works, etc.). Departures from published translations are my own, and may be referenced to the original text. Translations of otherwise untranslated sources are my own. I also use the following abbreviations, for which full citations are provided in the bibliography: