THE ESTABLISHING OF ETHOS

The conception of civil science embodied in Leviathan rests on the assumption that reason is of small power in the absence of eloquence. Hobbes's crucial inference is that, if truth is to prevail, the findings of science will have to be empowered by the persuasive techniques associated with the art of rhetoric. We next need to enquire into the extent to which these new theoretical commitments govern the presentation of Hobbes's mature civil science. How far is his later belief in the indispensability of eloquence mirrored in his employment of rhetorical techniques? How far do we find him calling on the methods of inventio, dispositio and elocutio to supplement his scientific demonstrations and lend them persuasive force?

As we have seen, Hobbes eventually endorsed one aspect of the rhetorical doctrine of inventio: the suggestion that, if there is to be any prospect of winning an argument, we must seek at the outset to gain the confidence of our audience by showing ourselves worthy of being heeded and believed. The rhetoricians had in turn suggested two main ways in which this can be done. One is by promising, as the Ad Herennium had put it, to say something at once novel and deserving of attention, and at the same time useful and important to the commonwealth. The other is by claiming, as Quintilian had later added, to be genuinely impartial on the issues under debate, and at the same time a person of accredited probity whose opinions can be trusted for moderation and modesty.