Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
What is the Leviathan?
View through CrossRef
The aim of this article is to explore some of what Hobbes says in Leviathan about what the Leviathan is. I propose that Hobbes is not finally clear on this score. Nonetheless, such indeterminacy might be revealing, insofar as it points us in different directions regarding how the state can be conceptualized, and what it is thought able to do. The paper is thus deliberately open ended: it does not aim to definitively settle interpretative issues, but rather to use Hobbes as a way of thinking about the differing potentials of state theory.
Title: What is the Leviathan?
Description:
The aim of this article is to explore some of what Hobbes says in Leviathan about what the Leviathan is.
I propose that Hobbes is not finally clear on this score.
Nonetheless, such indeterminacy might be revealing, insofar as it points us in different directions regarding how the state can be conceptualized, and what it is thought able to do.
The paper is thus deliberately open ended: it does not aim to definitively settle interpretative issues, but rather to use Hobbes as a way of thinking about the differing potentials of state theory.
Related Results
Leviathan: The Metamorphosis of a Medieval Image
Leviathan: The Metamorphosis of a Medieval Image
Abstract
The image of Leviathan held a special fascination for artists who decorated wooden synagogues and illustrated manuscripts from the eighteenth century through the first hal...
The Analysis of the Relationship between God, Religion and Politics in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and De Cive
The Analysis of the Relationship between God, Religion and Politics in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and De Cive
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a
significant political theorist who could be regarded as the founder of social
contract theories. Hobbes’s philosophy is worthy of attention in the h...
Authorisation and Representation before Leviathan
Authorisation and Representation before Leviathan
In this article, I show that Hobbes’s account of the generation of the commonwealth in both The Elements of Law and De Cive relies on ideas that he would come to theorise in terms ...
International Human Rights Protections Find Support in Hobbes’ Leviathan
International Human Rights Protections Find Support in Hobbes’ Leviathan
In her paper “Sovereignty and the International Protection of Human rights”, Cristina Lafont argues that “The obligation of respecting human rights in the sense of not contributing...
Preface to Beyond Leviathan
Preface to Beyond Leviathan
The state cannot be other than Leviathan in imposing its structurally entrenched power on overall societal decision-making. Yet a way must be found to extricate humanity from the e...
RE-Imagi(n)ing Leviathan
RE-Imagi(n)ing Leviathan
Over the years great care has been lavished by scholars of Hobbes on decoding the image produced for Leviathan by Abraham Bosse with the creative input of Thomas Hobbes. This artic...
Hobbes's "Mortal God" and Renaissance Hermeticism
Hobbes's "Mortal God" and Renaissance Hermeticism
AbstractResearch made by Schuhmann and Bredekamp has pointed up the unsuspected links between Hobbes and one of the ancient traditions best loved by Renaissance philosophy: Hermeti...
Reading Hobbes before Leviathan
Reading Hobbes before Leviathan
The purpose of this paper is to provide new information about Philip Scot’s 1650 Treatise of the schism of England, in which Hobbes is discussed in surprising detail. Who was the a...