1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910136607103321

Autore

McClure Christopher Scott

Titolo

Hobbes and the artifice of eternity / / Christopher Scott McClure [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016

ISBN

1-316-94226-0

1-316-94418-2

1-316-94450-6

1-316-60780-1

1-316-65003-0

1-316-94482-4

1-316-94610-X

1-316-94514-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vii, 234 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Classificazione

POL010000

Disciplina

320.01

Soggetti

Immortality (Philosophy)

Political science - Philosophy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Oct 2016).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: 1. The desire for immortality as a political problem; 2. The effectual truth of Hobbes's rhetoric; 3. Leviathan as a scientific work of art; 4. The hollow religion of Leviathan; 5. Hell and anxiety in Hobbes's Leviathan; 6. War, madness and death: the paradox of honor in Hobbes's Leviathan; 7. Self-interest rightly understood in Behemoth: the case of General Monck; 8. The afterlife and immortality.

Sommario/riassunto

Thomas Hobbes argues that the fear of violent death is the most reliable passion on which to found political society. His role in shaping the contemporary view of religion and honor in the West is pivotal, yet his ideas are famously riddled with contradictions. In this breakthrough study, McClure finds evidence that Hobbes' apparent inconsistencies are intentional, part of a sophisticated rhetorical strategy meant to make man more afraid of death than he naturally is. Hobbes subtly



undermined two of the most powerful manifestations of man's desire for immortality: the religious belief in an afterlife and the secular desire for eternal fame through honor. McClure argues that Hobbes purposefully stirred up controversy, provoking his adversaries into attacking him and unwittingly spreading his message. This study will appeal to scholars of Hobbes, political theorists, historians of early modern political thought and anyone interested in the genesis of modern Western attitudes toward mortality.