Hobbes, God & the Pursuit of Reason (week 1)

     The juxtaposition of Hobbes's desire to establish universal truths while wrestling with proof of God(s) existence is a fascinating theme for me in his book Leviathan. As an author of the Enlightenment, Hobbes aims to liberate one's way of thinking about the world, to be free of past baggage such as traditions/religion/culture and judge everything solely on the basis of reason.

     Ironically, one key element of Hobbes' approach is to prevent a 'warre of every one against every one' (SISG 760 Lecture 1.2) which undermines a core definition in his work that "when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable." (Chap. 13, Pg. 68) Additionally, if man stands at the center of the world instead of Nature or God(s), why would he create a world "where every man is Enemy to every man" (Chap. 13, Pg. 70) despite insignificant differences between each of them? To support Hobbes' rationale that a commonwealth must be established with an absolute sovereign to govern our state of nature, he must present a reason for the chaos that would encompass our world without such structure. Although the Bible and Christian traditions offer a reason for such chaos, Hobbes cannot accept its authority, "For, whosoever hath a lawfull power over any Writing, to make it law, hath the power also to approve, or disapprove the interpretation of the same." (Chap. 33, Pg. 200). Is the foundation of Hobbes' escape from nature therefore found in a rational arrangement based on the inescapable coercive power of the Bible's genesis story?

     Hobbes circumvents his own argument that man invented God as a result of "perpetuall feare" and "ignorance of causes" (Chap. 12, Pg. 61) during his discussion of religion in Chapter 12. "For he that from any effect hee seeth come to passe, should reason to the next and immediate cause thereof, and from thence to the cause of that cause, and plonge himselfe profoundly in the pursuit of causes; shall at last come to this, that there must be (as even the Heathen Philosophers confessed) one First Mover; that is, a First, and an Eternall cause of all things; which is that which men mean by the name of God:" (Chap. 12, Pg 61) In this excerpt, Hobbes essentially evokes Isaac Newton's laws of motion: a body at rest will remain at rest until acted upon and when a body forces another body to move there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, the world was at rest until God, a.k.a the First Mover, created the force to move another body (man). Independent of this seemingly contradictory thought process, Hobbes ultimately presents a monarchist viewpoint in that the difference in sovereignty between God and a Christian Commonwealth will be determined by who can enforce their laws.

     Liviathon does indeed liberate the way Hobbes' readers think about the world, but his main method is to dissect, redefine then reconstruct our language in a manner that invalidates the intellect of any man. Taking into consideration Hobbes' definitions in Part I of Leviathon, yes, "coercive power is inescapable" (SISG 760 Lecture 1.2). Especially if man is always an enemy to other man, but there is no rational arrangement to support such a conclusion. Therefore, Hobbes' rationale for why an absolute sovereign is founded on an idea that is incomprehensible to man because "no man can have in his mind an image of infinite magnitude" (Chap 3, Pg. 19) such as the First Mover or cause of chaos.