CFP: International Hobbes Association at the APA Eastern Division

The International Hobbes Association will sponsor two sessions at the American Philosophical Association (APA) Eastern Division Meeting, January 4-7, 2017 in Baltimore, MD. You are invited to submit an abstract for a paper presentation. Papers selected for presentation will also be strongly considered for publication in Hobbes Studies.

Abstracts (400 words maximum) should be submitted electronically to Rosamond Rhodes, Presiding Officer of the IHA (rosamond.rhodes@mssm.edu). Deadline: August 15, 2016.

Political Theology

Article: Politics of Immortality: Hobbes on “Humane and Divine Politiques”

Haig Patapan: ‘Politics of Immortality: Hobbes on “Humane and Divine Politiques”’, Political Theology, Online First (2016).

Abstract: Hobbes anticipates many important features of liberalism, including rights, the sovereign state, social contract and constitutionalism. Yet in his insistence that the sovereign will have final authority in matters of faith he appears to repudiate what we have come to consider the core liberal assumptions regarding separation of church and state. In this article, I argue that Hobbes takes this approach because of the political challenge posed by immortality (the promise of eternal rewards and the threat of eternal torment and damnation after death). Hobbes regards immortality as one of the most important factors that transform a religion from a means to strengthen the sovereign’s authority, a “humane politiques,” to a “Divine politiques,” where others come to exercise countervailing claims on subjects’ loyalty. Because immortality presents such a profound challenge to Hobbes’ political remedy founded on the judicious use of fear, he adopts a twofold strategy to moderate its political influence. The first is a redefinition of who shall speak and what shall be said about immortality. The second strategy is to elevate the demands of this-world, by promising an eternal peace that will ensure a commodious life.

Your top 10 Leviathan articles?

I was recently asked to recommend my top Hobbes articles for a new edition of Hobbes’s Leviathan, currently being prepared by David Johnston (Columbia) for Norton. This edition will replace the original 1996 one edited by Johnston and the late Richard Flathman.

Here is my list of 10. Any thoughts? What would your top 10 be? (Comments are open!)

 

1. Tom Sorell, ‘The science in Hobbes’s politics’, in Tom Sorell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (CUP, 1996).

2. Kinch Hoekstra, ‘Hobbesian equality’, in Sharon Lloyd, ed., Hobbes Today (CUP, 2013).

3. Quentin Skinner, ‘Leviathan: liberty redefined’, in Hobbes and Republican Liberty (CUP, 2008).

4. Jane Jaquette, ‘Defending liberal feminism: insights from Hobbes’, in Nancy Hirschmann and Joanne Wright, eds., Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).

5. Mónica Brito Vieira, ‘Juridical representation’, in The Elements of Representation in Hobbes (Brill, 2009).

6. Sharon Lloyd, ‘The reciprocity interpretation of Hobbes’s moral philosophy’, in Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (CUP, 2009).

7. A.P. Martinich, ‘Religion’, in Hobbes (Routledge, 2005).

8. Teresa Bejan, ‘Teaching the Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on education’, Oxford Review of Education 36:5 (2010).

9. Jules Townshend, ‘Hobbes as possessive individualist: interrogating the C. B. Macpherson thesis’, Hobbes Studies 12 (1999).

10. Noel Malcolm, ‘Hobbes’s theory of international relations’, in Aspects of Hobbes (OUP, 2002).

 

Here’s the thinking behind my list:

(1) This is a ‘holistic’ list: one choice affects the others, because (a) I decided that no author could appear more than once, and (b) I sought a relatively wide coverage – so, no room for more than one article on representation, say. Obviously, though, there are significant omissions, e.g. rhetoric, law.

(2) Contributions had to be relatively short, in English, and accessible to advanced undergraduates.

(4) I’ve gone for modern rather than ‘classic’ contributions – which will not be to everyone’s taste, doubtless! So, please do say below what you would prefer, whether for individual topics or as a whole set of 10.

 

 

First Biennial Conference of the European Hobbes Society Postponed

Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of the local organisers we have had to postpone the first Biennial Conference of the EHS at the University of Graz, Austria. We are currently inquiring into the possiblity of holding the event at another location, around the same time, and will update the website soon with more information. Many appologies for any inconvenience caused. In the meantime, if you have any questions please write to Laurens van Apeldoorn (l.c.j.van.apeldoorn@phil.leidenuniv.nl).

Workshop on Arash Abizadeh’s manuscript

On June 17th, several members of the European Hobbes Society met to discuss a draft of Arash Abizadeh’s important, book-length analysis of Hobbes’s moral philosophy. Abizadeh’s manuscript incisively combines rigorous textual interpretation with powerful philosophical analysis to cast new light on Hobbes’s ethics and meta-ethics. The workshop covered numerous features of the book, from fine details of interpretating Hobbes to broader issues of framing.

We then discussed a draft paper by Signy Gutnick Allen which offers a penetrating analysis of Hobbes’s theory of the right to punish.

Those present, from left to right in the picture above, were Adrian Blau (King’s College London), Elad Carmel (Oxford), Robin Douglass (King’s College London), Deborah Baumgold (Oregon), Arash Abizadeh (McGill), Signy Gutnick Allen (Queen Mary, University of London), and Paul Sagar (Cambridge).

 

Radio 4 discussion of Hobbes and Bodin on sovereignty

Listen to a fascinating BBC Radio 4 discussion of Bodin, Hobbes and others on sovereignty, by Melissa Lane (Princeton), Richard Bourke (QMUL) and Tim Stanton (York). (Click here for the recording.)

Hosted by Melvyn Bragg, the speakers discuss the history of the idea of sovereignty, the authority of a state to govern itself, and the relationship between the sovereign and people. These ideas of external and internal sovereignty were imagined in various ways in ancient Greece and Rome, and given a name in 16th-century France by the philosopher and jurist Jean Bodin in his Six Books of the Commonwealth, where he said (in an early English translation) ‘Maiestie or Soveraigntie is the most high, absolute, and perpetuall power over the citisens and subiects in a Commonweale: which the Latins cal Maiestatem, the Greeks akra exousia, kurion arche, and kurion politeuma; the Italians Segnoria, and the Hebrewes tomech shévet, that is to say, The greatest power to command.’ Shakespeare also explored the concept through Richard II and the king’s two bodies, Hobbes developed it in the 17th century, and the idea of popular sovereignty was tested in the Revolutionary era in America and France.