The science of republicanism: Hobbes and Publius

Abstract

Sheldon S. Wolin in “Hobbes and the Culture of Despotism,” asks a most important question: “is there a political element embedded in the social representation of scientific knowledge, such that to think in certain representational terms is to re-describe certain political postures, depending on the political character of the representations?” (1961). In this paper I examine this observation and outline the sense in which the scientific enterprise influences both Hobbes and Publius and how Hobbes is a stepping stone for Publius in the construction of a commercially grounded, constitutionally based republican system.