The Power of Persuasion. Rhetoric, Common Judgment and Machiavelli in Hobbes

Abstract

In this article, I explore the elusive function of rhetoric as a means to political pacification. With particular reference to Hobbes’s doctrine of the prophetic foundation of commonwealths, I contend that public persuasion, while being in most cases subversive and harmful, can sometimes cultivate men and make them more sociable. I purport thereby to qualify Hobbes’s denunciation of the seditious character of persuasion, and to question his alleged depreciation of common judgment as intrinsically gullible and passive. I argue in conclusion that there is more continuity on this score between Hobbes and Machiavelli than usually acknowledged, but also that this affinity threatens the unity of Hobbes’s argument.