Baruch and Hobbesy, freedom of speech, etc.

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Mar 20 00:08:23 PST 2000


Angela wrote:


>Matheron gives this example of Hobbes' discussion of sovereignty and the
>taking of life as an illustration: "Hobbes will specify in chapter 6,
>section 13, that we are obligated to obey the sovereign in all matters...
>On the one hand, then, we have the right to resist the sovereign if he
>wants to kill us or if he orders us to commit suicide. We have agreed to
>give him the means to kill others but not to kill ourselves or to let us
>kill, for every agreement of this kind is automatically void and cannot be
>included within the social contract. And, on the other hand, in a much
>more general way, we can conceive if an infinity of cases in which our
>disobedience would not take away from the sovereign any powers with which
>the social contract obligates us to furnish him. For example, Hobbes
>says, if the sovereign has condemned my father to death, and if he orders
>me to execute him, I have the right to refuse, for he will find
>specialised professionals to do this work anyway. I have agreed to give
>the sovereign the means to execute all those condemned to death,
>eventually including my father, but I have acquitted myself of all
>obligations on this point by paying my taxes -- thanks to which the
>sovereign can recruit his executioners." Heh.

Recall, though, that _no_ Social Contract theorist -- Locke, Rousseau, Kant, etc. -- justified _even_ this right to self-preservation which "man of feminine courage" Hobbes holds onto. Hobbes in fact stands out as a kind of political hedonist among generally ascetic & moralistic Western philosophers. Tell me, for instance, _which_ philospher of Hobbes's times -- or even later -- explicitly sanctions the Guilty man's right to self defense against the State, as Hobbes does:

***** [I]n case a great many men together, have already resisted the Sovereign Power unjustly, or committed some Capitall crime, for which every one of them expecteth death, whether have they not the Liberty then to joyn together, and assist, and defend one another? Certainly they have: For they but defend their lives, which the Guilty man may as well do, as the Innocent. (Hobbes, _Leviathan_, Chap XXI) *****

Even Spinoza does not go this far in defense of Liberty against the State (and obviously the Guilty man doesn't stand a chance before Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, etc.). Perhaps you want to bypass Matheron & go to Hobbes directly, while comparing Hobbes with other Western philosophers. You'll find Hobbes among the least willing to renounce Liberty.

Anyhow, you & Eric are giving an even more conservative reading of Hobbes than Leo Strauss, Michael Oakeshott, etc. do (are you familiar with their readings?). :)

Short of Marxists & Anarchists, Hobbes & Machiavelli are best friends of liberties that the West has produced.

Yoshie



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