Thomas Hobbes : la condition naturelle de l'humanité

Abstract

Thomas Hobbes The natural condition of mankind A study of the Latin edition of Th. Hobbes's Leviathan (1668) leads to a new interpretation of the concept of state of nature. After underlining its rhetorical status — an attempt to found a doctrine of political obligation and of the rationality of obedience to civil law — the author deals with the issue of natural law. He shows the need to distinguish the concept of self-preservation and that of a right over all things, a distinction necessary for understanding the logic of Leviathan. Finally, a hypothesis concerning the reasons that make this state of nature a condition of terror and uncertainty for intolerable human beings refers to an epistemology of opacity, the point of departure of Hobbes's political theory.

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