Interpreting Hobbes's Political Philosophy

292 Pages·2019·3.223 MB·English

by  S. A. Lloyd (editor)

’
INTERPRETING HOBBES S POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
The essays in this volume provide a state-of-the-art overview of the
central elements of Hobbes’s political philosophy and the ways in
whichtheycanbeinterpreted.Thevolume’scontributorsoffertheir
own interpretations of Hobbes’s philosophical method, his materi-
alism, his psychological theory and moral theory, and his views on
benevolence, law and civil liberties, religion, and women. Hobbes’s
ideas of authorization and representation, his use of the “state of
nature,” and his reply to the unjust “Foole” are also critically ana-
lyzed.Theessayswillhelpreaderstoorientthemselvesinthecomplex
scholarlyliteraturewhilealsoofferinggroundbreakingargumentsand
innovativeinterpretations.Thevolumeasawholewillfacilitatenew
insights into Hobbes’s political theory, enabling readers to consider
keyelementsofhisthoughtfrommultipleperspectivesandtoselect
andcombinethemtoformtheirowninterpretationsofhispolitical
philosophy.
s. a. lloyd isProfessorofPhilosophyandLawattheUniversityof
SouthernCalifornia.SheistheauthorofIdealsasInterestsinHobbes’s
Leviathan (Cambridge, 1992) and Morality in the Philosophy of
Thomas Hobbes (Cambridge, 2009), and the editor of
The Bloomsbury Companion to Hobbes (2012) and Hobbes Today
(Cambridge,2013).

’
INTERPRETING HOBBES S
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
edited by
S. A. LLOYD
UniversityofSouthernCalifornia
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title:InterpretingHobbes’spoliticalphilosophy/editedbyS.A.Lloyd,UniversityofSouthern
California.
description:NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2018.|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
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subjects:lcsh:Hobbes,Thomas,1588–1679.
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Contents
ListofContributors pagevii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 MethodologiesofInterpretingHobbes:Historicaland
Philosophical 10
AdrianBlau
2 Hobbes’sPolitical-PhilosophicalProject:Science
andSubversion 29
A.P.Martinich
3 Hobbes’sPhilosophicalMethodandthePassionofCuriosity 50
GianniPaganini
4 Hobbes,Life,andthePoliticsofSelf-Preservation:TheRole
ofMaterialisminHobbes’sPoliticalPhilosophy 70
SamanthaFrost
5 HumanNatureandMotivation:HamiltonversusHobbes 93
MichaelJ.Green
6 OnBenevolenceandLoveofOthers 106
GabriellaSlomp
7 InterpretingHobbes’sMoralTheory:Rightness,Goodness,
Virtue,andResponsibility 122
S.A.Lloyd
8 InterpretingHobbesonCivilLibertiesandRights
ofResistance 141
SusanneSreedhar
v
vi Contents
9 HobbesandChristianBelief 156
JohannSommerville
10 HobbesonPersonsandAuthorization 173
PaulWeithman
11 TheCharacterandSignificanceoftheStateofNature 191
PeterVanderschraaf
12 Hobbes’sConfoundingFoole 206
MichaelByron
13 “NotaWoman-Hater,”“NoRapist,”orEvenInventor
of“theSensitiveMale”?FeministInterpretationsofHobbes’s
PoliticalTheoryandTheirRelevanceforHobbesStudies 223
EvaOdzuck
14 TheProductivityofMisreading:InterpretingHobbes
inaHobbesianContractarianPerspective 242
LucFoisneau
Bibliography 258
Index 279
Contributors
adrian blau isSeniorLecturerinPoliticsatKing’sCollegeLondon.He
istheeditorofMethodsinAnalyticalPoliticalTheory(Cambridge,2017).
michael byron is Professor of Philosophy at Kent State University,
Ohio. He is the author of Submission and Subjection in Leviathan
(2015) and the editor of Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on
PracticalReason(Cambridge,2004).
luc foisneau isDirectorofResearchattheFrenchNationalCenterfor
Scientific Research (CNRS) and teaches political philosophy at the
ÉcoledesHautesÉtudesenSciencesSocialesinParis.Heistheauthor
of Hobbes et la toute-puissance de Dieu (2000) and Hobbes: La vie
inquiète(2016),andcoeditorofLeviathanafter350Years(2004).
samantha frost is Professor in the Department of Political Science, the
DepartmentofGenderandWomen’sStudies,andtheUnitforCriticism
andInterpretiveTheoryattheUniversityofIllinois,Urbana–Champaign.
Her publications include Lessons from a Materialist Thinker: Hobbesian
Reflections on Ethics and Politics (2008), New Materialisms: Ontology,
Ethics, and Politics (2010), which she coedited with Diana Coole,
andBioculturalCreatures:TowardaNewTheoryoftheHuman(2016).
michael j. green is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pomona
College. He has published articles in a number of journals
including Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Journal of the
HistoryofPhilosophy,andPacificPhilosophicalQuarterly.
s.a.lloydisProfessorofPhilosophyandLawattheUniversityofSouthern
California. She is the author of Ideals as Interests in Hobbes’s Leviathan
(Cambridge, 1992) and Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes:
Cases in the Law of Nature (Cambridge, 2009), and editor of Hobbes
Today(Cambridge,2012)andtheBloomsburyCompaniontoHobbes(2012).
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viii ListofContributors
a. p. martinich is the Roy Allison Vaughan Centennial Professor of
PhilosophyandProfessorofHistoryandGovernmentattheUniversity
of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Two Gods of
Leviathan (Cambridge, 1992) and Hobbes (2005), and coeditor, with
KinchHoekstra,ofTheOxfordHandbooktoHobbes(2016).
eva odzuck is an assistant professor of Political Science at Friedrich-
Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. She is the author of Thomas
Hobbes’körperbasierterLiberalismus(2016)andanumberofjournalarticles.
gianni paganini is Professor of the History of Philosophy at the
University of Eastern Piedmont in Vercelli, Italy. His publications
includeSkepsis(2008),Lesphilosophiesclandestinesàl’ageclassique(2005),
andtheItalianeditionofDemotulocoettempore(2010).
gabriella slomp is Reader in International Political Thought at the
University of St Andrews. She is the author and editor of numerous
books and articles on Hobbes, including Thomas Hobbes and the
Political Philosophy of Glory (2000) and Carl Schmitt and the Politics of
Hostility,ViolenceandTerror(2009).
johann sommerville is Professor of History at the University of
Wisconsin–MadisonandtheauthorofPoliticsandIdeologyinEngland,
1603–1640(1986)andThomasHobbes:PoliticalIdeasinHistoricalContext
(1992).
susanne sreedhar is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston
University. Her publications include Hobbes on Resistance: Defying the
Leviathan(Cambridge,2010).
peter vanderschraaf is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
California, Merced. He is the author of Learning and Coordination:
Inductive Deliberation, Equilibrium and Convention (2001), and Strategic
Justice:ConventionandProblemsofBalancingDivergentInterests(2019).
paul weithman is Glynn Family Honors Collegiate Professor of
Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author
of Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship (Cambridge, 2002), Why
Political Liberalism? (2010) and Rawls, Political Liberalism and
Reasonable Faith (Cambridge, 2016), and editor of Religion and
ContemporaryLiberalism(1997).
Acknowledgments
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude and wish to thank Isabella Lloyd-
Damnjanovic for her valuable work in translating chapter three and in
formatting and reviewing chapters, and preparing the index. My thanks
alsotoZlatanDamnjanovicandtoA.P.Martinichforscholarlysupportin
completingthisproject,andtoMaryaSchechtmanandJanetLynnEdgar
Preacher Lyons for their efforts in sustaining the conditions necessary for
theproductionofthiswork.
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