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Pulling Threads in the Hobbesian Fabric



Are there loose threads in the fabric of the thought of Thomas Hobbes? If you pull hard at one of these threads, does the whole thing (and especially the goal of delegitimizing the Cromwellian revolution and revolutions in general) unravel?

Hobbes was a much more fascinating guy than the cartoon versions of him suggest. and these loose threads make him more so. Hobbes was sufficiently logical that he had to admit there was such a thing as a right to rebel. Or something quite analogous, anyway.

Logic compels Hobbes to write things like this: "If the sovereign command a man, though justly condemned, to kill, wound, or maim himself; or not to resist those that assault him; or to abstain from the use of food, air, medicine, or any other thing without which he cannot live; yet hath that man the liberty to disobey." I take this to mean: if you are on death row, no contract or duty rationally deters you from resisting your executioner or seeking escape. Further, the resistance will naturally include cooperation with other resisters. If this isn't a revolution yet, it is at least a prison break.

He also wrote this, "The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them. For the right men have by nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no covenant be relinquished."

That suggests to many that Hobbes must have considered that subjects have a continuing right (not just in a hypothetical primordial pre-contractual existence, but here and now)  to decide for themselves where their loyalties lie. Or perhaps he didn't believe that: in which case he was capable of hiding from himself the implication of those words. Both are intriguing possibilities.

On a Facebook page devoted to the memory of von Mises, the proprietors recently started a thread on Hobbes. I tried to explain the above points as my contribution, only to be in effect shouted down, called a Noob, [a "newbie" in libertarian discussions! moi???] and told to 'read' books that I've read often and with care.

Libertarians, self-identified "Austrian economists" among them, love the cartoonish version of Hobbes' thought. They don't want to hear about the loose threads. It is nice to have such a clear but black beast.

Anyway, I referred them to Jean Hampton (1954-1996) , a scholar who has read Hobbes as carefully as anyone, and who stressed the revolutionary undertones. http://books.google.com/books...
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