Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy is a paradoxical fabric. On the one hand, his view of mankind is uncomplimentary, bordering on the defamatory; and yet he also imagines our species endowed with extraordinary power and worth, capable of imitating God by creating a life form, the civil state, and doing so with high moral purpose. In this regard, he has been compared to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who stands at the apex of modern European moral philosophy. I propose, in this essay, to treat Hobbes as a moral … (read more)
