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The Politics of Peace: The Role of the Political Covenant in Hobbes's Leviathan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Brian T. Trainor
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Abstract

The political covenant in Hobbes's Leviathan involves “more than consent, or concord; it is a real unity … made by covenant of every man with every man.” But is it possible for essentially separate individuals to merge their identity with the sovereign power and, if so, how? It is possible, initially, because each man shares a common desire for peace. However, this desire is “contrary to our natural passions” and is largely ineffectual until, through the device of a political covenant, it acquires the institutional support of the sovereign power. The will to peace is the essence of sovereignty; the establishment of a secure peace is its end. Ideally, the sovereign will operate within the parameters of legitimacy thus established. As a result of the political covenant, man's passions are contained, but the subject also acquires an enhanced ability to order his own actions in accordance with the will to peace.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 347 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1985

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References

Notes

Readers of the Review of Politics will be saddened to hear of the recent death of Professor Howard Warrender (27 February 1985). As one of his undergraduate students at Queen's University of Belfast, I was mesmerized by his wit and charm. As a postgraduate student of Hobbes's political philosophy, I was privileged to receive the invaluable criticism that one would expect from the author of the epic text, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes. We have lost a truly great mind.

1 Hobbes, T., Leviathan in The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, ed. Moles-worth, W. (London: J. Bohn, 1839–1845), 3:158Google Scholar. All subsequent references to Hobbes's work are to this edition.

2 Höffding, H., A History of Modern Philosophy, trans. Meyer, B. E. (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), 1:287.Google Scholar

3 Hobbes, , De Cive in English Works, 2: 47.Google Scholar

4 Hobbes, , Leviathan, 3:153–54.Google Scholar

5 Hobbes, , De Cive, 2:75.Google Scholar

6 Hobbes, , Leviathan, 3:45 and 88–89.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 169.

8 Ibid., p. 308.

9 Ibid., p. 317.

10 Ibid., p. 321

11 Ibid., pp. 204–205.

12 Ibid., p. 205

13 Hobbes, , De Cive, 2:33.Google Scholar

14 Hobbes, , Leviathan, 3:136.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 204.

16 Ibid., p. 205.

17 Ibid., 2: 75.

18 Ibid., 3: 128–29.

19 Hobbes, , De Cive, 2:44.Google Scholar

20 Hobbes, , Behemoth in English Works, 6:184.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 4: 237.

22 Hobbes, , De Cive, 2:108–109.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. xvi.

24 Ibid., p. 2.

25 Hobbes, , Leviathan, 3:702.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 114.

27 Ibid., pp. 85–86.

28 Ibid., p. 114.

29 Hobbes, , Decameron Physiologicum in English Works, 7:73.Google Scholar

30 Hobbes, , Leviathan, 3:86.Google Scholar

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32 Hobbes, Leviathan, 3:44.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., p. 42.

34 Ibid., p. 45.

35 Ibid., p. 62.

36 Ibid., pp. 88–89.

37 Ibid., pp. 153–54.

38 Ibid., p. 307.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid., p. 308.