Nature, civility and eschatology: Thomas Hobbes's progress in three acts

Abstract

This paper argues that Thomas Hobbes's theory contains an account of progressive defragmentation and unification of power, accompanied by the progression in human reasoning capacities. If the consequence of human nature is abandonment of natural condition and subjection to a sovereign, then similar principles should apply to the sovereigns themselves, since Hobbes sees them as continuing to exist in the state of nature. In turn, the relations between sovereigns must also lead to defragmentation of political authority, either by conquest or through peaceful submission. Total defragmentation of power might also have eschatological consequences, as the unified power of one human being over the whole world would remove 'external violence' as a cause of 'the dissolution of a commonwealth' while the perfection of reason would progressively remove the 'internal' causes. This is a hypothetical situation that could relate Hobbes's description of the Kingdom of God from Leviathan to his wider political theory by marking the single sovereign representative of now immortal all-encompassing Leviathan as the Antichrist and thus announcing the second coming of Christ.

Argument ovog rada je da teorija Tomasa Hobsa sadrži ideju progresivnog ukrupnjavanja i ujedinjenja moći koju prati napredovanje ljudskog razuma. Ukoliko je napuštanje prirodnog stanja i potčinjavanje suverenu posledica ljudske prirode, slično bi trebalo da važi i za same suverene, pošto Hobs smatra da oni i dalje žive u prirodnom stanju. Prema tome, odnosi među suverenima trebalo bi takođe da vode do ukrupnjavanja političke vlasti, kako osvajanjem, tako i miroljubivom predajom vlasti. Eventualna potpuna defragmentacija moći može takođe imati i eshatološke posledice, pošto bi objedinjena moć jednog čoveka nad celim svetom uklonila nasilje koje je pretilo od drugih suverena kao razlog raspadanja države, dok bi napredak razuma postepeno uklonio njene unutrašnje nesavršenosti. Ova bi hipotetička situacija mogla povezati Hobsov opis carstva Božjeg iz Levijatana sa njegovom širom političkom teorijom: jedinstveni suvereni predstavnik (sada) besmrtnog i sveobuhvatnog levijatana bi se mogao smatrati Antihristom, što bi najavilo drugi Hristov dolazak.