[ExI] Hobbesian Politics

[Stefano Vaj]

On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 7:21 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

> I think I understood almost all of that except
> what you mean by "Hobbesian". At least you
> (and presumably) many others are highly
> critical of Hobbes. Why?
>

Mmhhh. I am somewhat critical of Hobbesian positions, but of course he is a
major thinker in the European political tradition, and his works can be read
from many different angles, so that it would be difficult to quickly label
him in Manichean fashion. For instance, many people take him as a theorist
of absolutism, other underline that he establishes a secular, realistic and
consensual foundation to the human society against the openly metaphysical
stances of his opponents of the time. In fact, speaking of the right/left
split, I believe he has fans in both camps.

My casual reference to Hobbes in my previous post simply implies that
neocons may be closer to Hobbes than, say, to Locke. But I also said that
they would be per se more likely to be indifferent or favourable to
technology. This of course is not intended as a disqualification of either
Hobbes or technology, even though I am pretty far from an American neocon
myself. :-)

Stefano Vaj
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