Is the Hobbesian State of Nature Racialized?
Thomas Hobbes, like other early modern social contract theorists, has been accused of promoting racist views in his philosophy – ideas used to justify European imperialism and the devastation of Indigenous peoples. I argue that his philosophy does not assume or promote a naturalized racial hierarchy...
| Publicado en: | Hobbes Studies Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 28 - 51 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=163694145&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 163694145 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09215891 5D7Q jtl: Hobbes Studies issn: 09215891 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2023 vid: 36 iid: 1 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 163694145 10.1163/18750257-bja10055 ppf: 28 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 9MB tig: atl: Is the Hobbesian State of Nature Racialized? aug: au: Sreedhar, Susanne affil: Professor, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA su: Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679 Racism Human behavior Natural law Race relations Indigenous peoples Social contract Essentialism (Philosophy) sug: subj: Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679 Racism Human behavior Natural law Race relations Indigenous peoples Social contract Essentialism (Philosophy) keyword: colonialism equality imperialism race racism state of nature ab: Thomas Hobbes, like other early modern social contract theorists, has been accused of promoting racist views in his philosophy – ideas used to justify European imperialism and the devastation of Indigenous peoples. I argue that his philosophy does not assume or promote a naturalized racial hierarchy. I demonstrate that the logic of Hobbes's project requires rejecting a racially essentialist conception of human nature. His is a thoroughgoing and unrepentant anti-essentialism; he claims that there are no objective, immutable, necessary differences between 'civilized' people and 'savages.' Instead, I locate Hobbes's bias in his reliance on culturally-specific notions of government. Finally, I suggest that the Hobbes's natural law requirement of 'acknowledging' equality can be applied to questions about race. Though this was not its purpose, this requirement might provide a useful – and distinctively Hobbesian – tool to combat the impulse behind the problematic and persistent desire to find 'real' differences among racial groups. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Hobbes Studies is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Hobbes Studies holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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