Hobbes Questions

ENGL 520

Dr. Fike

1. One way to make sense of this long and difficult reading assignment is to attempt to assemble its terminology into a coherent picture.  In the following chart you will find Hobbes’s terms, and I invite you to weave them into a summary or flow chart of the author’s argument.  Remember, though, that the terms appear in no particular order.

2. The title of Hobbes’s book comes from Psalms 74:14, Isaiah 27:1, and Job 41.  Have a look at these passages and see if you can figure out whether his metaphor works as well as he surely hoped that it would in a book that is critical of metaphor.  For your ease of reference, here is a complete list from bible.com of passages mentioning the word “leviathan”:

·        Job 3:8:  May those who curse days [or the sea] curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

·        Job 41:1:  "Can you pull in the leviathan [possibly the crocodile] with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?

·        Psalm 74:14:  It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

·        Psalm 104:26:  There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

·        Isaiah 27:1:  In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.

3. Many of Hobbes’s contemporaries condemned him for a variety of reasons; this question focuses on two:

• Atheism:  Have a look at the text and see if you can find evidence that there is some basis for their claim and/or that Hobbes’s Christian faith is present.  Relate your answer to the events that preceded the publication of Leviathan and to Chapter XLVII, beginning on page 261. 

• Royalism vs. revolution:  Hobbes was a royalist, but is there anything in Leviathan that might have been construed as support for the English revolution?  And if so, how do you reconcile your findings with his statement about regicide on page 247?

4. Just as it is sensible to reverse engineer the reader responses of Hobbes’s contemporaries, the present question asks you to consider your own reactions.  From our vantage point and especially with respect to the elements of critical thinking, do you find Hobbes’s argument sound?  If not, what do you find objectionable here?  In particular, are there points where you find aporia (i.e., difficulties, contradictions, logical lapses)?  I suggest that you look especially on pages 246-47, 252-53, 259-61, and 270.