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Mother Lords: Original Maternal Dominion and the Practice of Preservation in Hobbes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2023

Meghan Robison Open the ORCID record for Meghan Robison [Opens in a new window]
Meghan Robison*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, Montclair State University Schmitt Hall, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07083
*
Corresponding author. email [email protected]
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Abstract

Hobbes's justification for original maternal dominion is often evaluated in connection to the ambiguous status of women in his political thought. Many feminist interpreters explain this ambiguity as a contradiction: following Carole Pateman, they see maternal dominion as one term of the “paradox of parental power.” The first aim of this article is to elaborate a second, alternative approach within some critical responses to Pateman's reading. Rather than as one part of a contradiction, in these interpretations maternal dominion emerges as a self-standing form of authority that is very different from patriarchal domination. By offering a new synthesis of some of these interpretations, I aim to show this second view as more comprehensive and compelling than that offered by Pateman. Then, building upon this view, I give a new reading of the concept of preservation that establishes the mother's dominion as an intersubjective practice that reflects an awareness about the interdependent conditions for human well-being and, hence, challenges the standard approach to Hobbesian individualism and sovereign power. Finally, drawing from my interpretation of preservation, I offer a new way to understand Hobbes's argument that “parental authority is derived from the child's consent.”

Type
Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , Winter 2023 , pp. 65 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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