Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Anarchy is one of the most important concepts in international theory; Thomas Hobbes is regularly invoked to illustrate the character and the consequences of anarchy. This article interrogates the theological aspect of Hobbes’ political philosophy in a bid to move beyond the distorting mythology that has grown up around ‘Hobbesian’ international relations. In doing so, it advances a positive argument that presents Hobbes as a theorist of interstate society that is made and unmade in the way that God made the universe. The concept of anarchy that is attributed to Hobbes is rooted in a theological dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power, which entails a particular way of constituting and comprehending reality. When the implications of this dispute are taken into account, it becomes evident that anarchy is neither an objective feature of a world composed of independent states nor an inescapable logical condition that follows the absence of central authority. Rather, anarchy is an achievement of thought, born of a particular time and place, which seeks a reflection of itself in the mirror of eternity.
Source: Relaciones Internacionales
Authors: William Bain, María Cabero López
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4309072737