Abstract

Thomas Hobbes sought a reconstruction of philosophy, ethics, and politics that would end, once and for all, the bitter disputes that led to the English Civil War. This reconstruction begins with the first principles of matter and motion and extends to a unique account of moral consent and political obligation. However, the author contends that his materialist account of human nature gives rise to a set of perceptions, imaginings, and desires that contribute to the chaos of the state of nature. He argues that the sort of person that emerges from Hobbes’s materialist anthropology is unlikely to be able, or unwilling, to make the necessary agreements about common meaning and language that constitute the ground of the social contract. Following Hobbes’s materialist anthropology, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and not the rational actor who consents to the social contract, is the more likely result. Performed approximately 25 years before Leviathan appeared, Macbeth provides a literary version of the state of nature, and expresses many of the themes that Hobbes later gave philosophical explanation to. The author suggests that we interpret Macbeth through Hobbes’s materialism. On this reading, the crisis of Macbeth is caused by the material motion of Macbeth’s senses, imagination, and desires. Macbeth provides graphic examples of the type of problems that the author suggests arise from Hobbes’s materialism, and it illuminates the political significance of Macbeth.

Highlights

  • Toward the end of his life, one that witnessed successive waves of violence and civil war, Hobbes writes, The cause . . . of civil war is, that men know not the causes neither of war nor peace, there being but few in the world that have learned those duties which unite and keep men in peace, that is to say, that have learned the rules of civil life sufficiently. . . . But why have they not learned them, unless for this reason, that none hitherto have taught them in a clear and exact method? (De Corp., i, 7)

  • Hobbes dedicated his life to articulating and teaching men, in a clear and exact method, the material dynamics of human nature and the moral and civil rules that follow from it. He believed a true understanding of human nature begins with the first principles of motion and body, and it is from these principles that the rules of moral and civil life are correctly established

  • After physics, we must come to moral philosophy; in which we are to consider the motions of the mind, namely, appetite, aversion, love, benevolence, hope, fear, anger, emulation . . . And the reason why these are to be considered after physics is, that they have their causes in sense and imagination, which are the subject of physical contemplation. (De Corp., vi, 6)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Toward the end of his life, one that witnessed successive waves of violence and civil war, Hobbes writes, The cause . . . of civil war is, that men know not the causes neither of war nor peace, there being but few in the world that have learned those duties which unite and keep men in peace, that is to say, that have learned the rules of civil life sufficiently. . . . But why have they not learned them, unless for this reason, that none hitherto have taught them in a clear and exact method? (De Corp., i, 7)Hobbes dedicated his life to articulating and teaching men, in a clear and exact method, the material dynamics of human nature and the moral and civil rules that follow from it. I contend, that Hobbes’s account of materialism reveals a dynamic process of perceptions, imaginings, and desires that lead to a fragmentation of meaning that contributes to the chaos of the state of nature and the unlikelihood of commonwealth.

Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.