WEBVTT

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Professor Steven Smith:
O.K., today,

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what a joy.
What a joy!

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We start Hobbes.
And he is one of the great

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treats.

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Thomas Hobbes was the author of
the first and,

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I believe, undoubtedly the
greatest, work of political

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theory written in the English
language.

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He was a master of English
style and prose,

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and his work ranks among the
very greatest in this or any

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other language.

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Leviathan is to prose
what Milton's Paradise

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Lost is to epic poetry.

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Think about that.

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Hobbes was in many ways a
perfect foil for Machiavelli.

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He played the part of Doctor
Watson to Machiavelli's Sherlock

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Holmes.
Hobbes, in other words,

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carried out what Machiavelli
had helped him make possible.

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Machiavelli,
you remember,

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claimed to have discovered a
new continent,

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new modes and orders.

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It was Hobbes who helped to
make this new continent

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habitable.
Machiavelli,

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you might say,
cleared the brush.

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He was the Lewis and Clarke or
the Columbus.

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Hobbes built the houses and
institutions.

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Hobbes provided us with the
definitive language in which

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even today we continue to speak
about the modern state.

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However, and this is what I
want to emphasize throughout our

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reading of Hobbes,
he has always been something of

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a paradox to his readers.

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On the one hand,
you will find Hobbes the most

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articulate defender of political
absolutism.

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Hobbes in the Hobbesian
doctrine of sovereignty,

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or the Hobbesian sovereign,
to have a complete monopoly of

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power within his given
territory.

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In fact, the famous
frontispiece of the book,

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which is reproduced in your
edition, although it is not

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altogether very clear.

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It is not a very good
reproduction,

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the famous frontispiece to the
original 1651 edition of

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Leviathan depicts the
Leviathan,

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depicts the state,
the sovereign,

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holding a sword in one hand and
the scepter in the other,

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and the various institutions of
the civilian and churchly

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ecclesiastical authority on each
side.

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The sovereign holds total power
over all the institutions of

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civilian and ecclesiastical
life, holding sway over a kind

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of peaceable kingdom.

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Add to this,
to the doctrine of indivisible

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sovereign power,
Hobbes' insistence that the

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sovereign exercise complete
control over the churches,

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over the university curricula,
and over what books and

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opinions can be read and taught.

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He seems to be the perfect
model of absolutism and of

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absolute government.

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You have to consider also the
following.

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Hobbes insists on the
fundamental equality of human

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beings, who he says are endowed
with certain natural and

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inalienable rights.

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He maintains the state is a
product of a covenant or a

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compact, a contract of a sort,
between individuals,

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and that the sovereign owes his
authority to the will or the

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consent of those he governs,
and finally that the sovereign

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is authorized only to protect
the interests of the governed by

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maintaining civil peace and
security.

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From this point of view,
it would seem that Hobbes helps

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to establish the language of
what we might think of as the

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liberal opposition to
absolutism.

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And this paradox was noted even
in Hobbes' own time.

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Was he a defender of royalism
and the power of the king,

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or was he a defender or an
opponent of royalism?

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I mean, in many ways,
to be sure, Hobbes was a

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product of his time,
and what else could he be?

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But Hobbes lived at a time when
the modern system of European

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states, even as we understand
them today, was just beginning

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to emerge.
Three years before the

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publication of Leviathan,
1651, the signing of the Treaty

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of Westphalia,
famous peace treaty,

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brought an end to more than a
century of religious war that

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had been ignited by the
Protestant Reformation.

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The Treaty of Westphalia
officially put an end to the 30

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Years War, but more than that it
ratified two decisive features

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that would be given powerful
expression by Hobbes.

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First, the Treaty declared that
the individual sovereign state

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would henceforth become the
highest level of authority;

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you might say,
putting an end once and for all

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to the universalist claims of
the Holy Roman Empire.

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Each state was to be sovereign
and to have its own authority.

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And secondly,
that the head of each state

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would have the right to
determine the religion of the

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state,
again thus putting an end to

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the claims of a single
universalist church.

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This is what the Treaty of
Westphalia put into practice

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and, among other things,
what Hobbes attempted to

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express in theory in his book:
the autonomy and authority of

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the sovereign and the
sovereign's power to establish

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what religious doctrine or what,
even more broadly,

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what opinions are to be taught
and held within a community,

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within a state.
Who was Hobbes?

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Let me say a word about him.

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Hobbes was born in 1588,
the year that the English naval

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forces drove back the invasion
of the famous Spanish Armada.

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He grew up in the waning years,
the last years,

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of the Elizabethan era,
and he was a boy when

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Shakespeare's most famous plays
were first performed.

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Hobbes, like many of you,
was a gifted student,

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and he went to college.

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His father, who was a local
pastor from the southwest of

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England, sent him to Oxford,
although he went at the age of

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14.
And after he graduated,

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he entered the service of an
aristocratic family,

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the Cavandish family,
where he became a private tutor

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to their son.

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His first book was a
translation of Thucydides'

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History of the Peloponnesian
War, which he completed in

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1629;
Thucydides, the great historian

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of the Peloponnesian War,
who we mentioned before when we

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talked about Plato.

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Hobbes was a gifted classical
scholar.

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He spent a considerable amount
of time on the European

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continent with his young tutee,
Mr.

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Cavandish.
And while he spent time in

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Europe, he met Galileo and Rene
Descartes.

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It was during the 1640s,
the period that initiated the

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great civil wars in England,
and the execution of the king,

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Charles I, that Hobbes left
England to live in France,

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while the fighting went on.

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He left England with many of
the royal families,

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the aristocratic families,
who were threatened by the

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republican armies organized by
Cromwell and that had executed

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the King.
In fact, the three justices,

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the three judges,
who were in charge of the

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judicial trial of Charles I,
King Charles,

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the one who lost his head,
those three judges later found

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a home where?
In New Haven.

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They came to New Haven,
the three judges,

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Judge Whaley,
Goff, and Dixwell.

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Does that sound familiar?

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Yes.
New Haven was in part started

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by, founded by,
members of the,

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you might say,
the republican opposition to

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royalty and to the English king.

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And any way,
Hobbes, however,

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was deeply distressed by the
outbreak of war,

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and he spent a great deal of
time reflecting on the causes of

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war and political disorder.

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His first treatise,
a book called De Cive,

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or De Cive,
depending on how you pronounce

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it,
On the Citizen,

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was published in 1642,
and it was a kind of draft

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version of Leviathan that
was published almost a decade

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later,
again in 1651.

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Hobbes returned to England the
same year of the book's

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publication, and spent most of
the rest of his long life,

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Leviathan was written
well into his 60s.

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He was 63 when it was published.

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He spent the rest of his long
life working on scientific and

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political problems.

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He wrote a history of the
English Civil Wars,

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called Behemoth,
which remains a classic of the

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analysis of the causes of social
conflict.

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And as if this were not enough,
near the very end of his life,

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he returned to his classical
studies translating all of

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Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey.

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He died in 1679 at the age of
91.

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From the various portraits and
descriptions of Hobbes,

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we can tell he was a man of
considerable charm,

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and I wish that in the book we
had had his picture,

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a reproduction of his portrait,
on it.

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But I just want to read one
brief passage from his

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biographer, a man named John
Aubrey, who knew him.

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It was written during Hobbes'
lifetime.

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Aubrey wrote about Hobbes:
"He had a good eye and that of

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hazel color, which was full of
life and spirit,

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even to the last.

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When he was earnest in
discourse, these shone,

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as it were, a bright- as if a
bright live coal within it.

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He had two kinds of looks.

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When he laughed,
was witty, in a merry humor,

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one could scarce sees his eyes,
and by and by,

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when he was serious and
positive, he opened his eyes

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round.
He was six foot high and

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something better."

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So that was very tall in the
seventeenth century.

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"He was six foot high and very
better.

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He had read much,
if one considers his long life,

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but his contemplation was much
more than his reading.

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He was want to say that if he
had read as much as other men,

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he should have known no more
than other men."

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So his point was he had read a
lot, but what was most important

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was his thinking.

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If he had read as much,
he would know as little.

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Gives you a little sense of
Hobbes' spirit,

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his humor, the wry wit that
becomes apparent on almost every

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page of this book,
but you have to be a careful

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reader.
Hobbes was deeply

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controversial,
as you might suspect,

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during his lifetime.

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Leviathan was excoriated
by almost every reader of the

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text.
To the churchmen,

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he was a godless atheist.

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To the republicans,
he was tainted with monarchy,

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or monarchism.
And to the monarchists,

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he was a dangerous skeptic and
free thinker.

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Hobbes, again,
along with Machiavelli,

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was one of the great architects
of the modern state.

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And to some degree,
he even seems to speak,

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he seems even more
characteristically modern than

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Machiavelli.
I mean, consider just some of

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the following.
Machiavelli speaks of the

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prince, while Hobbes speaks of
the sovereign,

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that is a kind of impersonal or
in Hobbes' language,

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artificial power created out of
a contract.

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Hobbes' method seems scientific.

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It seems formal and analytical
in contrast to Machiavelli's

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combination of historical
commentary and reflection drawn

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from personal experience.

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While Hobbes,
excuse me, while Machiavelli

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often spoke of the sublime
cruelty of men like Scipio and

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Hannibal,
Hobbes speaks the more

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pedestrian language,
the language of power-politics,

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where the goal is not glory and
honor, but self-preservation.

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And Machiavelli's emphasis upon
arms is considerably attenuated

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by Hobbes' emphasis on laws.

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Hobbes, in other words,
tried to render acceptable,

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tried to render palatable,
what Machiavelli had done by

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providing a more precise and
more legal and institutional

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framework for the modern state.

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So let's think a little bit
about what it was that Hobbes

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was attempting to accomplish.

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Hobbes, like Machiavelli,
was an innovator,

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and he was self-consciously
aware of his innovations.

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And like Machiavelli,
who said in the fifteenth

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chapter of The Prince
that he would be the first to

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examine the effectual truth of
things,

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as opposed to the imaginings of
them, Hobbes wrote that civil

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science, that is what he called
political science,

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civil science,
was no older than my book De

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Cive.
Modern political science,

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he said, began with this book
of 1642.

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What did he think of as his
novelty?

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What was new?
What was revolutionary about,

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or innovative,
about Hobbes' political

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science?
Hobbes clearly saw himself,

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in many respects,
as founding a political science

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modeled along that of the early
founders of the scientific

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revolution.
Galileo, I have already

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indicated that Hobbes had met,
William Harvey,

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Rene Descartes;
a handful of others who were

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part of what we think of as the
modern scientific

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revolutionaries.
And like these other

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revolutionaries who had
overthrown, you might say,

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the Aristotelian paradigm in
natural science,

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Hobbes set out to undermine the
authority of Aristotle in civil

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science, in political and moral
science.

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Hobbes set himself up as the
great anti-Aristotle,

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the great opposition to
Aristotle.

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Consider just the following
passage from Leviathan

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with one of my favorite titles
from the book,

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a chapter called "Of Darkness
from Vain Philosophy and

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Fabulous Traditions."

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In that chapter,
chapter 46, Hobbes writes:

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"There is nothing so absurd
that the old philosophers have

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not some of them maintained.

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And I believe that scarce
anything could be more absurdly

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said in natural philosophy than
that which is now called

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Aristotle's Metaphysics,
nor more repugnant to

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government than much that he had
said in his Politics,

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nor more ignorantly than a
great part of his

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Ethics."
So there, you see Hobbes laying

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down a challenge.

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What was it that he claimed to
find so absurd,

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repugnant and ignorant in
Aristotle?

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Why did he--what did he--what
was he trying to un-throne,

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dethrone in Aristotle?

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Hobbes is typically concerned
with the foundations of this new

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science, getting the building
blocks right from the beginning.

19:17.339 --> 19:20.409
The opening chapters of
Leviathan,

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which I have only assigned a
few, but the opening chapters

19:24.776 --> 19:29.146
present a kind of political
physics where human beings are

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reduced to body and the body is
further reduced to so much

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matter and motion.

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Human beings can be reduced to
their movable parts much like a

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machine.

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19:44.730 --> 19:48.300
"What is life?" he asks,
rhetorically in the

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introduction.
"What is life but a motion of

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the limbs?
What is the heart but a spring,

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or reason but a means of
calculating pleasures and

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pains."
He sets out to give a

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deliberately and thoroughly
materialistic and

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non-teleological physics of
human nature.

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In fact, a French disciple of
Hobbes in the next century,

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a man named La Mettrie,
wrote a treatise very much

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following in the lines of Hobbes
called L'Homme Machine,

20:22.329 --> 20:24.919
or literally,
Man a Machine.

20:24.920 --> 20:30.770
This is the way Hobbes' new
science of politics appears to

20:30.773 --> 20:37.353
begin, and that new beginning is
intended to offer in many ways a

20:37.346 --> 20:42.786
comprehensive alternative to
Aristotle's physics,

20:42.790 --> 20:45.490
or Aristotle's politics.

20:45.490 --> 20:50.270
Aristotle, remember,
argues that all action is

20:50.274 --> 20:53.894
goal-directed,
is goal-oriented.

20:53.890 --> 20:58.700
All actions aim at preservation
or change, at making something

20:58.701 --> 21:02.331
better or preventing it from
becoming worse.

21:02.329 --> 21:05.729
Hobbes believed,
on the other hand,

21:05.726 --> 21:11.616
that the overriding human fact,
the overriding motivation of

21:11.621 --> 21:15.601
human behavior,
is largely negative,

21:15.598 --> 21:21.208
not the desire to do good,
but the desire to avoid some

21:21.208 --> 21:23.848
evil.
Aristotle, for Hobbes,

21:23.852 --> 21:28.222
had simply seen the world
through the wrong end of the

21:28.218 --> 21:30.458
telescope.
For Aristotle,

21:30.457 --> 21:33.957
human beings have a goal or a
telos,

21:33.959 --> 21:38.549
which is to live a life in
community with others for the

21:38.545 --> 21:41.125
sake of human flourishing.

21:41.130 --> 21:45.010
But for Hobbes,
we enter into society not in

21:45.009 --> 21:49.519
order to fulfill or perfect our
rational nature,

21:49.519 --> 21:52.769
but rather to avoid the
greatest evil,

21:52.774 --> 21:57.704
namely death or fear of death,
at the hands of others.

21:57.700 --> 22:01.940
Politics, for him,
is less a matter of prudential

22:01.935 --> 22:07.305
decisions of better and worse,
than it is, you might say,

22:07.305 --> 22:12.295
an existential decision of
choosing life or death.

22:12.299 --> 22:16.429
For Hobbes, in many ways,
as for Machiavelli,

22:16.432 --> 22:20.942
it is the extreme situation of
life and death,

22:20.940 --> 22:24.950
of chaos and war,
that come to serve as the norm

22:24.945 --> 22:28.775
for politics and political
decision-making,

22:28.780 --> 22:31.860


22:31.859 --> 22:37.179
fundamental alternative or
challenge to Aristotle.

22:37.180 --> 22:40.930
And furthermore,
Hobbes not only criticized,

22:40.925 --> 22:43.795
you might say,
the foundations,

22:43.799 --> 22:46.829
the motivational and
psychological foundations,

22:46.829 --> 22:50.319
of Aristotle's theory of
politics and human nature,

22:50.319 --> 22:57.719
he blamed the influence of
Aristotle for much of the civil

22:57.722 --> 23:00.582
conflict of his age.

23:00.579 --> 23:05.929
Aristotle, who was increasingly
being embraced by civic

23:05.931 --> 23:11.581
republicans in England of his
time had been brought up,

23:11.579 --> 23:14.969
according to Hobbes,
on Aristotle's teaching that

23:14.967 --> 23:17.647
man is by nature a political
animal.

23:17.650 --> 23:21.200
This was, again,
the thesis of the classical

23:21.197 --> 23:25.897
republicans according to which
we are only fully human,

23:25.900 --> 23:30.750
or we only become fully human,
when we are engaged in

23:30.750 --> 23:34.950
political life,
in ruling ourselves by laws of

23:34.947 --> 23:39.397
our own making.
This was a doctrine that Hobbes

23:39.401 --> 23:44.161
attributes to many of the
teaching, much of the teaching

23:44.159 --> 23:47.099
at the universities of his age.

23:47.099 --> 23:50.569
And it is precisely this desire
to be self-governing,

23:50.574 --> 23:54.544
you might say to rule directly,
to have a direct part in

23:54.544 --> 23:57.784
political rule,
that Hobbes saw as one of the

23:57.779 --> 24:00.279
great root causes of civil war.

24:00.279 --> 24:05.419
And his answer to Aristotle and
to the classical republicans of

24:05.424 --> 24:10.654
his age, was his famous doctrine
of what we might call "indirect

24:10.652 --> 24:14.492
government,"
or what perhaps would be more

24:14.491 --> 24:19.341
familiar to us by the term
"representative government."

24:19.339 --> 24:24.539
The sovereign is not,
for Hobbes, the people or some

24:24.541 --> 24:30.251
faction of the people ruling
directly in their collective

24:30.253 --> 24:33.083
capacity.
The sovereign is,

24:33.075 --> 24:38.345
for Hobbes, the artificially
reconstructed will of the people

24:38.353 --> 24:41.963
in the person of their
representative.

24:41.960 --> 24:45.770
The sovereign representative
acts, you might say,

24:45.772 --> 24:50.302
like a filter for the wills and
passions of the people.

24:50.299 --> 24:55.569
The sovereign is not the direct
expression of my will or your

24:55.568 --> 25:00.918
will, but rather an abstraction
from my natural desire to rule

25:00.924 --> 25:03.294
myself.
In other words,

25:03.288 --> 25:07.388
instead of seeking to
participate directly in

25:07.391 --> 25:11.921
political rule,
Hobbes wants us to abstain from

25:11.923 --> 25:17.173
politics by agreeing to be ruled
by this artificial man,

25:17.170 --> 25:20.510
as he calls it,
this artificial person or

25:20.507 --> 25:25.177
representative that he gives the
name "the sovereign."

25:25.180 --> 25:28.830
"For by art",
he says in the introduction,

25:28.828 --> 25:33.368
"For by art is created that
great Leviathan called a

25:33.367 --> 25:38.197
commonwealth or a state,
which is but an artificial man,

25:38.200 --> 25:42.580
though of greater stature and
strength than the natural for

25:42.580 --> 25:46.280
whose protection and defense it
was intended."

25:46.279 --> 25:49.129
The sovereign,
he says, or Leviathan,

25:49.133 --> 25:53.653
this great artificial man,
the sovereign is something more

25:53.652 --> 25:57.142
like what we would call today an
office,

25:57.140 --> 26:01.770
rather than a person,
as when we speak of the

26:01.769 --> 26:04.399
executive as an office.

26:04.400 --> 26:08.910
And it is simply the person who
inhabits the office,

26:08.913 --> 26:14.053
although that might be somewhat
questionable in some of our

26:14.046 --> 26:16.786
recent executive decisions.

26:16.789 --> 26:21.309
But for Hobbes,
Hobbes creates this office of a

26:21.308 --> 26:24.548
political called the sovereign.

26:24.549 --> 26:29.459
Now, his language in that
sentence that I just read from

26:29.462 --> 26:32.412
the introduction,
"For by art",

26:32.410 --> 26:36.490
again, "is created that great
Leviathan called a commonwealth

26:36.488 --> 26:40.438
or a state."
When Hobbes uses the term "art"

26:40.437 --> 26:46.527
there, "For by art is created,"
that term is deeply revealing of

26:46.529 --> 26:50.979
his purpose.
Again, for Aristotle,

26:50.977 --> 26:56.257
by contrast,
art presupposes nature.

26:56.259 --> 27:00.719
Or in other words,
nature precedes art.

27:00.720 --> 27:05.200
Nature supplies the standards,
the materials,

27:05.201 --> 27:08.971
the models, for all the later
arts,

27:08.970 --> 27:12.070
the city being by nature,
man by nature,

27:12.067 --> 27:14.527
nature provides the standard.

27:14.529 --> 27:19.669
Nature precedes art and human
artifice or human making.

27:19.670 --> 27:23.270
But for Hobbes,
think of this by contrast,

27:23.271 --> 27:26.611
art does not so much imitate
nature,

27:26.609 --> 27:31.509
rather art can create a new
kind of nature,

27:31.514 --> 27:36.424
an artificial nature,
an artificial person,

27:36.418 --> 27:39.338
as it were.
Through art,

27:39.344 --> 27:43.164
again, is created the great
Leviathan.

27:43.160 --> 27:47.600
Through art properly understood
and by "art," of course,

27:47.595 --> 27:50.575
I mean something like human
making,

27:50.579 --> 27:54.009
human ingenuity,
human artfulness,

27:54.007 --> 27:58.887
through art we can begin not
just to imitate,

27:58.890 --> 28:03.640
but we can transform nature,
make it into something of our

28:03.640 --> 28:06.680
own choosing.
"Art" here is not to be

28:06.680 --> 28:10.110
understood also as the
antithesis of science,

28:10.105 --> 28:13.915
as when we speak of the arts
and the sciences.

28:13.920 --> 28:18.060
Rather, science is the highest
form of art.

28:18.059 --> 28:21.409
Science is the highest kind of
human making.

28:21.410 --> 28:26.420
Science, or what Hobbes simply
calls by the name "reason," is

28:26.418 --> 28:30.758
simply the fullest expression of
human artfulness.

28:30.759 --> 28:35.879
"Reason," he says in chapter 5,
"reason is not a sense and

28:35.882 --> 28:40.052
memory born with us,
reason is not born with us,

28:40.050 --> 28:44.840
nor gotten by experience only,"
he says, "but is attained by

28:44.836 --> 28:48.436
industry,
first in the act imposing of

28:48.442 --> 28:52.962
names and secondly,
by getting a good and orderly

28:52.955 --> 28:56.765
method."
Think of those terms.

28:56.769 --> 29:00.839
"Reason," and again,
he uses this synonymously with

29:00.840 --> 29:05.970
other terms, like science or
art, is not simply born with us.

29:05.970 --> 29:10.260
It is not simply a genetic
endowment, nor is it simply the

29:10.258 --> 29:14.168
product of experience,
which Hobbes calls by the name

29:14.171 --> 29:17.201
"prudence."
But rather reason,

29:17.198 --> 29:21.518
he says, is attained by
industry, by work,

29:21.521 --> 29:26.921
and it is developed first,
he says, by the imposing of

29:26.921 --> 29:30.741
names on things,
the correct names on things,

29:30.736 --> 29:35.936
and second by getting a good
and orderly method of study.

29:35.940 --> 29:41.660
Reason consists in the
imposition of a method for the

29:41.660 --> 29:43.970
conquest of nature.

29:43.970 --> 29:48.470
By science, Hobbes tells us,
he means the knowledge of

29:48.474 --> 29:51.114
consequences,
and especially,

29:51.109 --> 29:54.589
he goes on to say,
"when we see how anything comes

29:54.586 --> 29:57.776
about, upon what causes and by
what manner,

29:57.779 --> 30:02.269
when like causes come into our
power, we can see how to make it

30:02.265 --> 30:03.925
produce like effect."

30:03.930 --> 30:07.940
We can see how to make it
produce like effects.

30:07.940 --> 30:12.690
Reason, science,
art is the capacity to

30:12.685 --> 30:18.675
transform nature by making it,
imposing on it,

30:18.680 --> 30:23.070
a method that will produce like
effects after similar

30:23.065 --> 30:26.255
consequences.
There is, in other words,

30:26.257 --> 30:30.107
a kind of a radically
transformative view of reason

30:30.113 --> 30:33.483
and knowledge and science,
political science,

30:33.476 --> 30:35.976
civil science,
running throughout Hobbes'

30:35.979 --> 30:38.679
work.
Reason is not about simple

30:38.675 --> 30:42.305
observation, but rather,
it is about making,

30:42.307 --> 30:44.757
production,
or as he says,

30:44.763 --> 30:49.863
"making like consequences
produce the desired effects."

30:49.859 --> 30:53.039
We can have a science of
politics, Hobbes believes.

30:53.039 --> 30:57.329
We can have a civil science,
because politics is a matter of

30:57.325 --> 30:59.355
human making,
of human doing,

30:59.359 --> 31:01.029
of human goings on.

31:01.030 --> 31:03.510
We can know the political world.

31:03.509 --> 31:08.149
We can create a science of
politics because we make it.

31:08.150 --> 31:10.280
It is something constructed by
us.

31:10.279 --> 31:14.199
Hobbes' goal here,
as it were, is to liberate

31:14.197 --> 31:19.627
knowledge, to liberate science
from subservience or dependence

31:19.628 --> 31:23.778
upon nature or by chance,
by fortuna,

31:23.780 --> 31:29.010
by turning science into a tool
for remaking nature to fit our

31:29.014 --> 31:33.494
needs,
to impose our needs or satisfy

31:33.493 --> 31:37.313
our needs through our science.

31:37.309 --> 31:39.849
Art, and especially the
political art,

31:39.851 --> 31:43.561
is a matter of reordering
nature, even human nature,

31:43.559 --> 31:47.919
first according to Hobbes,
by resolving it into its most

31:47.915 --> 31:51.555
elementary units,
and then by reconstructing it

31:51.558 --> 31:55.358
so that it will produce the
desired results,

31:55.359 --> 32:00.009
much like a physicist in a
laboratory might.

32:00.009 --> 32:04.359
This is Hobbes' answer to
Machiavelli's famous call in

32:04.355 --> 32:07.215
chapter 25 to master
fortuna,

32:07.224 --> 32:10.344
to master chance or luck,
fortune.

32:10.339 --> 32:13.119
But you might say,
Hobbes goes further than

32:13.115 --> 32:16.255
Machiavelli.
Machiavelli said in that famous

32:16.263 --> 32:19.493
chapter 25, that the prince,
if he is lucky,

32:19.490 --> 32:23.380
will master fortuna
about half the time,

32:23.384 --> 32:25.844
only about 50% of the time.

32:25.839 --> 32:29.429
The rest of human action,
the rest of statecraft,

32:29.427 --> 32:33.007
will be really left to chance,
luck, contingency,

32:33.014 --> 32:36.734
circumstances.
Hobbes believes that armed with

32:36.729 --> 32:39.629
the proper method,
with the proper art,

32:39.633 --> 32:44.193
or scientific doctrine,
that we might eventually become

32:44.194 --> 32:47.354
the masters and possessors of
nature.

32:47.349 --> 32:50.959
And I use that term "masters
and possessors of nature," a

32:50.960 --> 32:54.820
term not of Hobbes' making,
but of Descartes from the sixth

32:54.817 --> 32:58.467
part of the Discourse on
Method, because I think it

32:58.472 --> 33:01.232
perfectly expresses Hobbes'
aspirations,

33:01.230 --> 33:05.380
not only to create a science of
politics, but to create a kind

33:05.375 --> 33:09.205
of immortal commonwealth,
which is based on science and

33:09.211 --> 33:12.181
therefore based on the proper
civil science,

33:12.179 --> 33:15.699
and therefore will be
impervious to fluctuation,

33:15.700 --> 33:21.120
decay, and war and conflict,
which all other previous

33:21.118 --> 33:24.138
societies have experienced.

33:24.140 --> 33:27.350
You can begin to see,
in other words,

33:27.353 --> 33:31.283
in Hobbes' brief introduction
to his book,

33:31.279 --> 33:36.919
as well as the opening
chapters, you can really see the

33:36.916 --> 33:42.656
immensely transformative and
really revolutionary spirit

33:42.657 --> 33:46.607
underlying this amazing,
amazing book.

33:46.610 --> 33:56.480


33:56.480 --> 33:57.610
So where do we go from here?

33:57.610 --> 34:01.020


34:01.019 --> 34:05.949
We turn from methodology and
science to politics.

34:05.950 --> 34:13.090


34:13.090 --> 34:16.810
What is Hobbes' great question?

34:16.809 --> 34:21.979
What was important when
reading, starting out with a new

34:21.984 --> 34:26.594
book, asking yourself,
what question is the author

34:26.594 --> 34:28.574
trying to answer?

34:28.570 --> 34:29.970
What is the question?

34:29.969 --> 34:34.469
And it is not always easy to
answer, because sometimes they

34:34.469 --> 34:39.199
do not always make their deepest
or most fundamental questions

34:39.201 --> 34:40.831
altogether clear.

34:40.830 --> 34:43.980


34:43.980 --> 34:47.050
In the case of
Leviathan,

34:47.050 --> 34:52.100
I would suggest to you,
Hobbes' central question is,

34:52.102 --> 34:55.472
what makes authority possible?

34:55.470 --> 34:59.370


34:59.370 --> 35:02.560
What is the source of authority?

35:02.559 --> 35:08.309
And you might say,
what renders it legitimate?

35:08.309 --> 35:12.429
Maybe the question is,
what makes legitimate authority

35:12.425 --> 35:16.365
possible?
This is still a huge question

35:16.369 --> 35:22.549
for us when we think about
nation building and building new

35:22.547 --> 35:27.657
states, how to create a
legitimate authority.

35:27.659 --> 35:30.959
Obviously, there is a
tremendous issue with this in

35:30.961 --> 35:34.401
Iraq today.
People there and here struggle

35:34.401 --> 35:38.791
with what would constitute a
legitimate authority.

35:38.789 --> 35:42.969
Perhaps we should airlift
copies of Leviathan to

35:42.974 --> 35:47.554
them, because that is the issue
that Hobbes is fundamentally

35:47.547 --> 35:51.717
concerned with.
His question goes further.

35:51.719 --> 35:57.139
How can individuals who are
biologically autonomous,

35:57.135 --> 36:03.715
who judge and see matters very
differently from one another,

36:03.719 --> 36:07.899
who can never be sure whether
they trust one another,

36:07.899 --> 36:12.159
how can such individuals accept
a common authority?

36:12.159 --> 36:15.799
And, again, that is not just
what constitutes authority,

36:15.797 --> 36:18.307
but what makes authority
legitimate.

36:18.309 --> 36:21.709
That remains not only the
fundamental question for Hobbes,

36:21.708 --> 36:26.458
but for the entire,
at least for the entire social

36:26.463 --> 36:32.073
contract tradition that he
helped to establish.

36:32.070 --> 36:34.540
You might say,
of course the question,

36:34.541 --> 36:37.951
what renders authority
legitimate, is only possible,

36:37.947 --> 36:41.417
or is only raised when
authority is in question.

36:41.420 --> 36:44.370
That is to say,
when the rules governing

36:44.365 --> 36:47.985
authority have broken down in
times of crisis,

36:47.989 --> 36:50.529
and that was certainly true in
Hobbes' time,

36:50.530 --> 36:52.480
a time of civil war and crisis.

36:52.480 --> 36:56.850
What renders authority
legitimate or respectable?

36:56.849 --> 37:01.929
And to answer that question,
Hobbes tells a story.

37:01.929 --> 37:07.359
He tells a story about
something he calls "the state of

37:07.360 --> 37:10.980
nature," a term he did not
invent,

37:10.980 --> 37:15.420
but with which his name will
always and forever be

37:15.415 --> 37:19.575
associated, the idea of the
state of nature.

37:19.579 --> 37:23.599
"The state of nature" is not a
gift of grace or a state of

37:23.601 --> 37:29.091
grace from which we have fallen,
as in the biblical account of

37:29.091 --> 37:35.061
Eden, nor is the state of nature
a political condition,

37:35.059 --> 37:38.899
as maintained in some sense by
Aristotle, when he says the

37:38.895 --> 37:40.775
polis is by nature.

37:40.780 --> 37:45.300
The state of nature for Hobbes
is a condition of conflict and

37:45.298 --> 37:45.748
war.

37:45.750 --> 37:48.860


37:48.860 --> 37:53.520
And by a "state of nature" he
means, or by a state of war,

37:53.520 --> 37:58.260
he means a condition where
there is no recognized authority

37:58.262 --> 38:01.372
in his language to keep us in
awe,

38:01.370 --> 38:05.230
no authority to awe us.

38:05.230 --> 38:08.140
Such a condition,
a state of war,

38:08.144 --> 38:13.614
may mean a condition of open
warfare, but not necessarily.

38:13.610 --> 38:17.720
It can signify battle,
but Hobbes says it can also

38:17.722 --> 38:22.772
signify the will to contend,
simply the desire or the will

38:22.772 --> 38:27.312
to engage in conflict,
renders something like a state

38:27.314 --> 38:30.124
of nature.
A state of war can include,

38:30.123 --> 38:32.663
in other words,
what we might call a "cold

38:32.664 --> 38:35.774
war,"
two hostile sides looking at

38:35.767 --> 38:41.067
each other across a barrier of
some type, not clear or not

38:41.074 --> 38:44.244
certain what the other will do.

38:44.239 --> 38:48.099
So the state of nature is not
necessarily a condition of

38:48.103 --> 38:51.053
actual fighting,
but what he calls a "known

38:51.053 --> 38:52.883
disposition to fight."

38:52.880 --> 38:56.420
If you are known or believed to
be willing to fight,

38:56.417 --> 38:58.357
you are in a state of war.

38:58.360 --> 39:04.540
It is a condition for Hobbes of
maximum insecurity where in his

39:04.541 --> 39:08.331
famous formula "life is
solitary, poor,

39:08.329 --> 39:11.419
nasty, brutish,
and short."

39:11.420 --> 39:15.400
Perhaps he should have said
fortunately short.

39:15.400 --> 39:20.140
This is the natural condition,
the state of nature,

39:20.135 --> 39:24.105
the state of war that Hobbes
attributes to,

39:24.113 --> 39:28.663
again, the fundamental fact of
human nature.

39:28.660 --> 39:32.450


39:32.449 --> 39:36.709
Now, his claim that the state
of nature is the condition that

39:36.705 --> 39:39.325
we are naturally--the state of
war,

39:39.329 --> 39:42.849
rather, is a condition that we
are naturally in,

39:42.852 --> 39:47.992
is to say, among other things,
that nature does not unite us

39:47.994 --> 39:51.314
in peace, in harmony,
in friendship,

39:51.307 --> 39:53.197
or in solidarity.

39:53.199 --> 39:56.039
If nature is a norm,
it does not,

39:56.039 --> 40:01.629
again, mandate or incline us to
peace, friendship and solidarity

40:01.630 --> 40:05.610
with others.
Only human art or science or

40:05.611 --> 40:09.911
art, human contrivance,
can bring about peace.

40:09.910 --> 40:12.170
Conflict and war are primary.

40:12.170 --> 40:15.480
Peace is derivative.

40:15.480 --> 40:19.090
In other words,
for Hobbes, authority and

40:19.092 --> 40:24.242
relations of authority do not
arise naturally among us,

40:24.239 --> 40:27.439
but are rather,
again, like civil science

40:27.435 --> 40:30.945
itself, the product of
contrivance or art.

40:30.949 --> 40:37.549
So the question for us remains,
which deeply challenged readers

40:37.548 --> 40:41.568
in Hobbes' own time,
what makes Hobbes' story,

40:41.574 --> 40:44.744
as I am calling it,
his story about the state of

40:44.741 --> 40:48.521
nature being a condition of war,
what makes it plausible?

40:48.519 --> 40:52.469
What makes it believable as an
account of, again,

40:52.468 --> 40:55.428
the condition we are naturally
in?

40:55.430 --> 40:59.540


40:59.539 --> 41:04.809
Why should we believe Hobbes'
story and not some other story?

41:04.810 --> 41:12.280


41:12.280 --> 41:18.640
I just want to say a word about
that before closing.

41:18.639 --> 41:21.899
From one point of view,
reading Hobbes,

41:21.898 --> 41:26.868
his account of the state of
nature seems to derive from his

41:26.871 --> 41:30.491
physics of motion and rest,
in the opening chapters of

41:30.493 --> 41:31.163
Leviathan.

41:31.159 --> 41:34.119
He begins the work,
you remember,

41:34.116 --> 41:38.546
with an account of human
nature, account of human

41:38.552 --> 41:43.452
psychology, as a product of
sense and experience.

41:43.449 --> 41:47.059
We are bodies in motion,
and who cannot help but obey

41:47.055 --> 41:50.725
the law or the physics of
attraction and repulsion.

41:50.730 --> 41:54.030
We are bodies in constant
motion.

41:54.030 --> 41:58.260
He seems, in other words,
to have a kind of materialistic

41:58.257 --> 42:02.407
psychology in which human
behavior exhibits the same,

42:02.409 --> 42:06.229
as it were, mechanical
tendencies as billiard balls

42:06.229 --> 42:08.979
that can be understood as
obeying,

42:08.980 --> 42:14.390
again, geometric or causal
processes of cause and effect.

42:14.390 --> 42:18.320
Right?
The state of nature is not seen

42:18.317 --> 42:22.727
by him as an actual historical
condition in some ways,

42:22.730 --> 42:27.480
although he occasionally will
refer to what we might think of

42:27.480 --> 42:32.230
as anthropological evidence to
support his views on the state

42:32.231 --> 42:35.231
of nature.
But the state of nature,

42:35.234 --> 42:39.664
for him, is rather a kind of
thought experiment after the

42:39.655 --> 42:42.335
manner of experimental science.

42:42.340 --> 42:43.720
It is a kind of thought
experiment.

42:43.719 --> 42:47.879
It consists of taking human
beings who are members of

42:47.880 --> 42:50.760
families, of estates,
of kingdoms,

42:50.760 --> 42:54.810
and so on, dissolving these
social relations into their

42:54.812 --> 42:57.592
fundamental units,
namely the abstract

42:57.589 --> 43:00.029
individuals,
and then imagining,

43:00.029 --> 43:03.159
again, in the manner of a
chemist or a physicist,

43:03.161 --> 43:07.011
how these basic units would
hypothetically interact with one

43:07.011 --> 43:09.261
another,
again almost like the

43:09.263 --> 43:12.473
properties of chemical
substances in some ways.

43:12.469 --> 43:18.239
How would we behave in this
kind of thought experiment?

43:18.239 --> 43:24.419
That would be one way of
reading that Hobbes seems to,

43:24.418 --> 43:30.828
wants us to think about the
state of nature as akin to a

43:30.829 --> 43:33.859
scientific experiment.

43:33.860 --> 43:37.160
Hobbes is the,
again, the great founder of

43:37.158 --> 43:39.728
what we might call,
among others,

43:39.732 --> 43:44.802
is the experimental method in
social and political science.

43:44.800 --> 43:47.870
And there is a reason,
perhaps a reason for this,

43:47.866 --> 43:49.766
too.
And I will end just on this

43:49.771 --> 43:52.881
note.
When Hobbes was a young man,

43:52.881 --> 43:57.931
he worked as a private
secretary for a short time,

43:57.929 --> 44:03.879
a private secretary to another
very famous Englishman by the

44:03.879 --> 44:08.459
name of Francis Bacon,
the great founder of what we

44:08.455 --> 44:12.995
think of as the experimental
method, the method of trial and

44:12.997 --> 44:16.587
error,
of experience and experiment,

44:16.592 --> 44:21.502
and arguably Hobbes was
influenced in many ways by

44:21.495 --> 44:26.995
Bacon's own philosophy of
experience and experiment.

44:27.000 --> 44:31.770
And Hobbes took Bacon's method
in some ways applying it to

44:31.772 --> 44:36.972
politics, tried to imagine,
again, the natural condition of

44:36.971 --> 44:40.461
human beings,
and what we are by nature,

44:40.458 --> 44:46.098
by a process of abstraction,
and abstracting all of the

44:46.098 --> 44:52.828
relations and properties that we
have acquired over history,

44:52.829 --> 44:54.929
through custom,
through experience,

44:54.929 --> 44:58.079
stripping those away like the
layers of an onion,

44:58.079 --> 45:01.959
and putting us almost,
as it were, in an experimental

45:01.961 --> 45:07.131
test tube or under a microscope,
seeing how we would under those

45:07.132 --> 45:11.042
conditions react and behave with
one another.

45:11.039 --> 45:15.609
I will leave it at that,
although I will start next week

45:15.610 --> 45:20.510
by showing how that view of
Hobbes is only at best partially

45:20.512 --> 45:23.782
correct.
So anyway, have a wonderful

45:23.782 --> 45:29.002
weekend with your parents here,
and I will see you next week.