The Hebraic tradition and its influence on Thomas Hobbes's political theory: An examination of sovereign and citizens.

摘要

The thesis of this dissertation is the claim that Thomas Hobbes borrowed and used Hebraic-Biblical materials in the construction of Leviathan, his doctrine of state. As such, Hobbes was more a Hebraic than Greek or Roman thinker.;Based on his imitation of the Biblical creation epic as his approach to political philosophy as the Introduction to Leviathan proclaims and on his constant references and citations from Scripture throughout the book and his other works, The Elements of Law, De Cive (The Citizen) among them, this research presents a radically new approach of evaluating his theory in a distinctively Judeo-Christian tradition of political philosophy. Thus, it contributes the theological aspect in Hobbes in the unbroken chain of Moses, Jesus, Paul, Augustine, etc. which, hitherto, has lacked in the interpretation of his theory, the core of which is the Biblical struggle of the forces of good against the forces of evil: the Commonwealth vs. the State of Nature and the Christian Commonwealth vs. the Kingdom of Darkness as presented in Leviathan.;The thesis recognizes the Biblical quality of Hobbes's thinking as well as the Bible's substantial contribution to Western political tradition through him.