PARADOXES OF HOBBESIAN SOVEREIGNTY

Authors

  • Barry STOCKER Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Science and Letters Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Keywords:

Hobbes, Pascal, Sovereignty, Law, Justice, Paradox, Natural, Civil, Divine, Force

Abstract

In the lifetime of Hobbes, it was Pascal who focused most on the paradoxes of human reason, and on the tension between civil laws and universal moral law. A framework for examining Hobbes's political philosophy can be established through a reading of Pascal' thought, before a detailed discussion of De Cive and Leviathan takes place. The comparison of the two texts by Hobbes will aid the task of detecting whether Hobbes himself was aware of some of the problems in his theory, and revised the text of De Cive in order to either resolve these problems or draw attention away from them.

Author Biography

Barry STOCKER, Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Science and Letters Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Barry Stocker teaches philosophy at Istanbul Technical University, where is an Assistant Professor. He received a doctorate from the University of Sussex in 1996 for a thesis on philosophy and literature. He is the author of Derrida on Deconstruction (Routledge 2006). He edited Derrida: Basic Writings (Routledge 2007) and Post-Analytic Tractatus (Ashgate 2004). Current research projects include ‘Philosophy of Literary Judgement’, ‘Nietzsche’s Political Thought’, ‘Foucault on Liberty’, and ‘Kierkegaard on Subjectivity and Politics’.

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Published

2013-01-31