Argumentacija Levijatana (1)

In: Politicka misao, Band 43, Heft 2, S. 95-114

Abstract

A Croatian translation of the fifth chapter in Oakeshott's classical study "Introduction to Leviathan," originally published in 1946 & aimed at interpreting Thomas Hobbes' political theory. Oakeshott's Hobbes on Civil Association (Indianopolis: Libert Fund, 2000) is utilized as the source for this translation. The basic tenets of Hobbes political philosophy are outlined, including the mechanistic premise underlying the nature & behavior of men. Hobbes's arguments that life is a race & selfish endeavor led to the conclusion that state & statute law, not the individual nor the Church, can arrange order in human life. Hobbes proposes a variation on the social contract theory in which he develops the rationale of civil society, showing how civil society could be reconstructed as a simple mechanical system & absolutism successfully argued as the only rationally defensible form of government. In Hobbes's account, the social contract explains civil society in terms of its most simple elements, in particular the individual natural rights to self-preservation & enjoyment of life. The mutual transferring of such rights is a contract by which individuals abide in a civil society under a sovereign's rule. R. Young