Lessons from a Materialist Thinker : Hobbesian Reflections on Ethics and Politics / Samantha Frost.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frost, Samantha, Author.

Series:

Cultural Memory in the Present

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Thomas Hobbes is an iconic figure who serves as an easy reference for pundits commenting on the brutality of war as well as for critics of a distinctly modern individualism in which calculating and rapacious self-interest is the cause of the violence, destruction, and exploitation endemic to the contemporary world. Frost's reading of Hobbes's philosophy shows us that underlying such visions of self and politics is another iconic figure: that of the Cartesian subject. What gives the iconic Hobbes his hardcore individualism and its corollary accounts of instrumentalism, conflict, and absolutism is a Cartesian rendering of the self as split into mind and body. Carefully elaborating Hobbes's materialist ontology, Lessons from a Materialist Thinker challenges both our implicit Cartesian assumptions about the self and the commonplace Hobbes that so readily figures violence in our political imagination. Through his materialism, Hobbes presents an alternative modern account of self-consciousness, reason, agency, power, freedom, and responsibility. In doing so, he shows that our fundamental intersubjectivity and interdependence require that we pursue peace above all else.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Hobbes and the Matter of Self-Consciousness

2 Hobbes and the Caprice of Reason

3 The Time of Determination: Movement, Will, and Action

4 The Ethics in Determinism: Intersubjectivity, the Collective, and Peace

5 The Action and Passion of Politics: Hobbes on Power

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)

ISBN:

1-5036-2683-0

OCLC:

1294426059