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Hobbes and His Audience: The Dynamics of Theorizing*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Abstract
This paper argues for a conceptualization of political theory based upon a jurisprudential model of reasoning, rather than the more commonly accepted model of logical demonstration. The purpose of political theorizing is to persuade and convince, not to prove; consequently it is a form of argument necessarily directed at a particular audience or audiences. Hobbes is examined as a theorist who directed his argument at those audiences which were politically most significant. This paper explores that aspect of Hobbes's theory which was intended to persuade his Puritan audience. Hobbes attempted to persuade the Puritans by presenting his argument in a manner subtly similar to the style of reasoning they were familiar with in religious terms. This interpretation is supported by a comparison of the arguments of Hobbes and Calvin. This analysis of Hobbes is intended to illustrate both a general view of the nature of political theorizing, and the advantages of adopting an historical method in examining past political theorists.
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References
1 See, for example, Stevenson, Charles L., Ethics and Language (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944)Google Scholar; Peters, Richard S., Hobbes (Baltimore: Penguin, 1967) pp. 166–167Google Scholar.
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30 Leviathan, p. 47; Behemoth, p. 24; E. W., IV, 418–419.
31 Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, preface. From Hobbes's perspective, Hooker's reliance on Aristotle and the philosophy of order was a major defect in his political theory, since it prevented him from affecting his Puritan audience which held different metaphysical assumptions. That is, Hooker would have presented Hobbes with an excellent example of intelligent yet ineffective political theorizing.
32 Perhaps the outstanding example of Hobbes's coopting the opposition is his use of the idea of representative government. The doctrine of representative government, popular with many opposition groups, was, of course, rejected by Hobbes: “What bloodshed hath not this erroneous doctrine caused, that kings are not superiors to, but administrators for the Multitude?” (De Cive, p. 9). Yet Hobbes took the concept and interpreted it in such a manner as to make it politically innocuous: the representative (sovereign) had total freedom of action, while the represented (the subjects) had all the obligations. Thus Hobbes was able to turn a politically dangerous opposition doctrine into a defense of absolute sovereignty. See Pitkin, Hanna, The Concept of Representation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 14–37Google Scholar. Similarly Hobbs co-opted the idea of government based on consent. But in his version, even a government based on conquest, in which the defeated subjects submit out of fear for their lives, is interpreted as an example of voluntary consent. Leviathan, pp. 129–133.
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36 Hobbes does refer to other groups, including Catholics, as causes of the civil war, but theyplay a very minor role in comparison with the Presbyterians. See Behemoth, p. 20; Macgillivray, , “Hobbes's History of The Civil War,” p. 190Google Scholar.
37 That Hobbes was familiar enough with Calvin to have adopted this approach is very likely; he attended the strongly Puritan Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where students normally read Calvin. For comments on Hobbes's interest in religious issues see Doyle, , “The Contemporary Background of Hobbes's State of Nature,” Economica 7 (December, 1927), 336–355CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Glover, Willis B., “God and Thomas Hobbes” in Brown, Keith C., ed., Hobbes Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965), p. 142Google Scholar.
38 In constructing his parallel argument Hobbes was perhaps subtly employing his “good fancy”, i.e., the ability to observe “similitudes … as are but rarely observed by others,” a skill which he recognized was sometimes necessary in order to achieve understanding: “In demonstration, in counsel, and all rigorous search of truth, judgment does all, except sometimes the understanding have need to be opened by some apt similitude; and then there is so much use of fancy” (Leviathan, pp. 43–44). Hobbes might have expected that the Puritans' political understanding would be opened by the apt similitude he presented them.
39 Since this paper is concerned with Hobbes's political theory and not with his statements on religion, it will not deal with Bks. III and IV of Leviathan. Hobbes's discussion of religion follows the same pattern as his political theory; it is an argument aimed at the two religious groups most politically disruptive, the Puritans and the Catholics. See Leviathan, p. 452; Pocock, J. G. A., “Time, History, and Eschatology in the Thought of Thomas Hobbes” in his Politics, Language and Time (New York: Atheneum, 1971), pp. 179, 180–7Google Scholar.
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87 Ibid., pp. 255, 305, 306.
88 See Ashcraft, , “Hobbes's Natural Man,” pp. 1089–90, 1109–1111Google Scholar.
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