Hobbes’s Political-Philosophical Project

Abstract

The appropriate theory to guide interpretations of Hobbes’s philosophy is both intentionalist and historical. Intentionalism is the search for what he intended to communicate. What he meant to communicate was conditioned by his historical circumstances. Conceiving of his political philosophy as a science on the model of geometry, Hobbes identified its two methods and its goal. The first method consists of beginning with definitional causes and deducing their effects; the second consists of beginning with effects and hypothesizing possible causes. The goal of philosophy is to improve the quality of human life. As for his subversion, he wanted to subvert the mistaken religio-political views that led to the English Civil War, the belief in limited sovereignty, the practice of superstitions, and the pretension that religion should be independent of the sovereign.