Transcript Hobbes

What moves man?
The science of
“consequence”
The situation for action
The nature of the
“state”
The Sovereign One
Body
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On science (natural philosophy)
• Philosophy is the study of the causes of the
world of appearance (de Corpore)
• Philosophy studies principles of causality, or
“consequence” that govern bodies in motion
• Four categories for analyzing “appearance”:
body, accident, phantasms, names
On Political “Science”
• Political science = moral science (what is
right) + civil science (what is just)
• Moral and civil science build on a foundation
in natural science
• Subject is man as a moving “thinking-body”
Consequence and right action
• Special causes in political science:
Passions
Names and Definitions
Formula
• Giving life to truth: reading the formula
• Action in context: “consequentialist” morality
(If I do this, then this will happen…)
Making the “occasione”
• What will (probably) happen: making the
imaginary situation, or context for action
• From Chance (“Fortuna”) to Probability (or
what is necessary “for the most part”)
• What “should” happen: what “ought” to
happen depends on what “probably” will
• “The Laws of Nature oblige in foro interno [‘in
conscience,’ or in imagination], that is to say, they
bind to a desire they should take place: but in foro
externo…[or in action, they oblige] not always.
• “For he that should be modest, and tractable, and
perform all he promises, in such a time, and place,
where no man else should do so, should but make
himself a prey to others, and procure his own certain
ruin...
• “And again, he that having sufficient Security, that
others shall observe the same laws toward him, [and]
observes them not himself, seeketh not Peace but
War, and consequently the destruction of his Nature
by Violence.” (Hobbes, Chp 15, p. 126 in original)
What is a “state”?
• A general condition or situation (a locus ficta)
• Hobbes’s influence on enlightenment (Locke,
Smith, Rousseau)
• Why does the change from one state to
another seem necessary? What is the logic of
the relation between them?
What makes the (necessary) difference? The
One Body
Why consent?
What is “sovereignty”?
• ‘Personation’ and the Power of the One Body
Figure
• The One as foundation of Civilization
• The State at War vs. the State of War
(protecting the Industry of men)
What moves man, in common?
• His ‘sense’ of his situation, as one among
many
• Constructing the situation: Political Art and
Political Science
• On Subjection: bearing the burden of Power