Conclusion

The conclusion returns to the question of hermeneutics and interpreting Hobbes in different contexts, Hobbes is constituted by the interpretation imposed on him, making text and interpretation inseparable. That is not to say, again agreeing with Gadamer and Ricoeur, that we are compelled to accept that one interpretation is as good as another. Because we belong to a tradition of interpretation, and have no option but to begin with certain prejudices which we may modify, but not so completely that no one recognizes the activity in which we are engaged. There are limits to what, as an intellectual community compelled to adhere to some standards, we are willing to accept as an interpretation, rather than a fabrication. There are contestations of interpretation and the possibility through them of the equivalent of Popper’s refutations.