Stanton, Tim orcid.org/0000-0002-8282-9570 (2011) Hobbes and Schmitt. History of european ideas. pp. 160-67. ISSN 0191-6599
Abstract
Many commentators are unpersuaded by Carl Schmitt's interpretation of Hobbes’s political theory which, to their minds, remakes Hobbes in Schmitt’s own authoritarian image. The argument advanced in this essay comprises three claims about Hobbes and Schmitt and the ways in which they are construed. The first claim is that these commentators are bewitched by a picture of authority which biases their own claims about Hobbes, perhaps in ways that they may not fully appreciate. The second claim relates to Hobbes’s individualism. On Schmitt’s account, it was this individualism that opened the barely visible crack in the theoretical justification of the state through which it was worm-eaten by liberalism. This essay argues that Hobbes’s individualism is not what Schmitt or his critics take it to be. The individualism that figures in Hobbes’s discussions of covenant and conscience, pace Schmitt, is an illusion, albeit one that lies at the very basis of his conception of the state and animates his understanding of the relationship between protection and obedience that sustains it. The essay concludes with a few remarks about the wider implications of the argument it advances.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Columnated text (i.e. 8 p = 16 p) |
Keywords: | Thomas Hobbes,Carl Schmitt,rights,liberalism,Leviathan,authority |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Politics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jun 2012 12:10 |
Last Modified: | 13 Dec 2024 00:02 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2010.11.00... |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2010.11.007 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:46593 |