Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher (1588–1679), author of De Cive (1642/1647), Leviathan (1651), De Corpore (1655), De Homine (1658), Behemoth (1668, published posthumously 1681), Decameron Physiologicum (1678). The foundational figure of modern state-sovereignty theory and the wiki's principal interlocutor in BS-I Sessions 1–2 for the prosthetic-sovereignty thesis and the double exclusion of God and beast from the social contract. Derrida coins "prosthestate" for the Hobbesian construction. The thesis Derrida draws from Hobbes (beyond Hobbes's stated intent): if sovereignty is prosthetic, it is deconstructible.

Key Points

  • Sovereignty as artificial-soul / mortal god / automaton. Hobbes opens Leviathan by saying art imitates divine art and fabricates an artificial animal; sovereignty is the artificial soul. "By art is created that great LEVIATHAN" — Hobbes's title, the biblical Leviathan repurposed as the commonwealth (the "mortal god"). The frontispiece shows a giant composed of small human figures. Derrida: "the state is a sort of robot, an animal monster." BS-I S1 pp. 26–30.
  • Prosthetic sovereignty as Derridean reading. Derrida's neologism "prosthestate" names what Hobbes constructs without naming. Sovereignty is posited as immortal precisely because mortal — the prosthesis is required because nature does not provide it. Therefore deconstructible. BS-I S1 p. 27.
  • The double exclusion of God and beast from contract. Leviathan ch. 14: "To make Covenant with God, is impossible." Ch. 14: "To make Covenant with bruit Beasts, is impossible." Both excluded by a single criterion: neither can respond — mutual acceptance cannot be confirmed. The sovereign occupies the same structural position as God and beast: defined by non-response. The sovereign IS "the one who does not have to respond." BS-I S2 pp. 54–57.
  • The fear-sovereignty circle. Hobbes's analysis of fear as political passion: "Sovereignty causes fear, and fear makes the sovereign" (BS-I gloss on Leviathan ch. 13–14). Fear "is both the origin of the law and of the transgression of the law" (BS-I S2 p. 41). The chapter on Crimes, Excuses and Extenuations (Leviathan ch. 27) is engaged.
  • Lieu-tenance — the theological residue. Hobbes's "secular" sovereignty is not truly emancipated from theology; it retains imitation (man's art imitates God's art) and lieu-tenance (sovereign as Lieutenant of God on earth). Leviathan ch. 16 on Moses/Christ/Holy-Spirit as the three persons "personated" by God makes the lieutenancy structure unmistakable. BS-I S2 pp. 46–55.
  • De Cive on the right of master over slaves and beasts. The relevant chapter is engaged at BS-I S2; the right-over-beasts is structurally identical to the right of the sovereign over subjects under the contract. The right is a right of non-reciprocity — the master/sovereign does not have to reciprocate.
  • Homo homini lupus is inherited by Hobbes from Plautus's Asinaria, not invented by him. De Cive uses the saying alongside homo homini deus; man is both wolf and god to man. The standard "Hobbes is the originator" attribution is corrected at BS-I S2 pp. 60–62 (against Agamben's perpetuation of the misattribution).

Role on the Wiki

Hobbes is BS-I's principal political-philosophical interlocutor for the modern theory of sovereignty. The wiki's sovereignty master concept page anchors several core arguments in Hobbes via Derrida's reading: prosthestate (arg #3); the double exclusion (arg #5); lieu-tenance (arg #4); the right-not-to-respond as the structural feature of sovereignty.

Hobbes appears on the wiki only via this BS-I ingest; no other source on the wiki engages Hobbes substantially. Future ingests (Schmitt's reading of Hobbes; secondary Hobbes scholarship; political-theology corpus) would expand the page.

Sources

  • derrida-2001-bete-souverain-i — Sessions 1 (Leviathan / prosthesis), 2 (faire savoir / 9/11 / double exclusion / lieu-tenance), 3 (homo homini lupus inherited from Plautus). The seminar's principal sovereignty-interlocutor.

Connections

  • is read by derrida-2001-bete-souverain-i as the prosthestate — sovereignty as gigantic prosthesis, therefore deconstructible
  • is engaged with by carl-schmitt (decisionism inherits Hobbesian sovereignty; Concept of the Political friend/enemy distinction extends De Cive's wolf-state)
  • inherits plautus on homo homini lupus
  • anchors sovereignty master concept page (BS-I args #3, #4, #5)
  • anchors fable-political (the "art imitates divine art" passage from Leviathan's opening)
  • appears in wolf-and-werewolf (wolf-tradition reading; Hobbes inherits Plautus)
  • is critiqued for the unacknowledged theological residue (lieu-tenance) that Derrida exhumes from Leviathan ch. 16

Open Questions

  • The relation between Hobbes's prosthestate and Schmitt's Concept of the Political (1932) is not developed by Derrida in BS-I; Schmitt explicitly cites Hobbes. Open for carl-schmitt-side and Political Theology corpus.
  • Hobbes's reception in 20th-century political philosophy (Strauss, Skinner, Pettit, the Cambridge School, the Cambridge-Hobbesians of the 1960s onward) is not engaged in BS-I and is not on the wiki.
  • The relation of Behemoth (Hobbes's posthumous historical work on the English Civil War, 1668/1681) to Leviathan's prosthetic-sovereignty is mentioned but not developed; the Behemoth/Leviathan pair from Job 40–41 is invoked at BS-I S1 pp. 24–26.