Shakespeare and Hobbes: Macbeth and the Fragility of Political Order

摘要

Thomas Hobbes sought a reconstruction of philosophy, ethics, and politics that would end, once and for all, the bitter disputes that led to the English Civil War. This reconstruction begins with the first principles of matter and motion and extends to a unique account of moral consent and political obligation. However, the author contends that his materialist account of human nature gives rise to a set of perceptions, imaginings, and desires that contribute to the chaos of the state of nature. He argues that the sort of person that emerges from Hobbesa??s materialist anthropology is unlikely to be able, or unwilling, to make the necessary agreements about common meaning and language that constitute the ground of the social contract. Following Hobbesa??s materialist anthropology, Shakespearea??s Macbeth, and not the rational actor who consents to the social contract, is the more likely result. Performed approximately 25 years before Leviathan appeared, Macbeth provides a literary version of the state of nature, and expresses many of the themes that Hobbes later gave philosophical explanation to. The author suggests that we interpret Macbeth through Hobbesa??s materialism. On this reading, the crisis of Macbeth is caused by the material motion of Macbetha??s senses, imagination, and desires. Macbeth provides graphic examples of the type of problems that the author suggests arise from Hobbesa??s materialism, and it illuminates the political significance of Macbeth.