Hobbes and the Artifice of Eternity
eBook - PDF

Hobbes and the Artifice of Eternity

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Hobbes and the Artifice of Eternity

About this book

Thomas Hobbes argues that the fear of violent death is the most reliable passion on which to found political society. His role in shaping the contemporary view of religion and honor in the West is pivotal, yet his ideas are famously riddled with contradictions. In this breakthrough study, McClure finds evidence that Hobbes' apparent inconsistencies are intentional, part of a sophisticated rhetorical strategy meant to make man more afraid of death than he naturally is. Hobbes subtly undermined two of the most powerful manifestations of man's desire for immortality: the religious belief in an afterlife and the secular desire for eternal fame through honor. McClure arguesthat Hobbes purposefully stirred up controversy, provoking his adversaries into attacking him and unwittingly spreading his message. This study will appeal to scholars of Hobbes, political theorists, historians of early modern political thought and anyone interested in the genesis of modern Western attitudes toward mortality.

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Yes, you can access Hobbes and the Artifice of Eternity by Christopher Scott McClure in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politica e relazioni internazionali & Storia e teoria politica. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1 The Desire for Immortality as a Political Problem
  8. 2 The Effectual Truth of Hobbes’s Rhetoric
  9. 3 Leviathan as a Scientific Work of Art
  10. 4 The Hollow Religion of Leviathan
  11. 5 Hell and Anxiety in Hobbes’s Leviathan
  12. 6 War, Madness and Death: The Paradox of Honor in Hobbes’s Leviathan
  13. 7 Self-Interest Rightly Understood in Behemoth: The Case of General Monck
  14. 8 The Afterlife of Immortality
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index