Thomas Hobbes (1558 – 1679)
Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.
T. Hobbes, Leviathan, I
Videolezioni: Gianfranco Marini, Hobbes
La figura di Hobbes e la sua ricezione
Homo homini lupus
Il nesso colto da Thomas Hobbes tra paura e potere è un elemento di grande modernità: la paura è al centro del suo pensiero politico sia come paura reciproca tra gli uomini, secondo la formula homo homini lupus, sia come paura dei sudditi nei confronti del sovrano, raffigurato sotto la forma del mostruoso, biblico Leviatano. Così narrava Hobbes la propria nascita:
«E mia madre mise al mondo due gemelli: me stesso e la paura».
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