Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:12:17.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hobbes’s agnostic theology before Leviathan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Arash Abizadeh Open the ORCID record for Arash Abizadeh [Opens in a new window]
Arash Abizadeh*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
*
Email: arash.abizadeh@mcgill.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior to 1651, Hobbes was agnostic about the existence of God. Hobbes argued that God’s existence could neither be demonstrated nor proved, so that those who reason about God’s existence will systematically vacillate, sometimes thinking God exists, sometimes not, which for Hobbes is to say they will doubt God’s existence. Because this vacillation or doubt is inherent to the subject, reasoners like himself will judge that settling on one belief rather than another is epistemically unjustified. Hobbes’s agnosticism becomes apparent once we attend to his distinctions between the propositional attitudes one might adopt towards theological claims, including supposing, thinking, having faith and knowing.

Keywords

Thomas HobbesagnosticismGodtheologyatheismpropositional attitudes
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 5 , 2017 , pp. 714 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abizadeh, Arash. 2017. “Hobbes’s Conventionalist Theology, the Trinity, and God as an Artificial Person by Fiction.” The Historical Journal 1–27. doi:10.1017/S0018246X16000418.Google Scholar
Arp, Robert. 1999. “The Quinque Viae of Thomas Hobbes.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 16 (4): 367–394.Google Scholar
Brown, K. C. 1962. “Hobbes’s Grounds for Belief in a Deity.” Philosophy 37 (142): 336–344. 10.1017/S003181910006215XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Jeffrey R. 2005. The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cromartie, Alan. 2008. “The God of Thomas Hobbes.” The Historical Journal 51 (4): 857–879. doi:10.1017/S0018246X08007103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curley, Edwin. 1988. “‘I Durst Not Write So Boldly’ or, How to Read Hobbes’ Theological-Political Treatise.” In Hobbes e Spinoza, scienza e politica, edited by Bostrenghi, Daniela, 595–621. Naples: Bibliopolis.Google Scholar
Curley, Edwin. 1989–90. “Reflections on Hobbes: Recent Work in his Moral and Political Philosophy.” Journal of Philosophical Research 15: 169–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curley, Edwin. 1996. “Calvin and Hobbes, or, Hobbes as an Orthodox Christian.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 34 (2): 257–271. 10.1353/hph.1996.0030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jong, Willem R. 1986. “Hobbes’s Logic: Language and Scientific Method.” History and Philosophy of Logic 7: 123–142. 10.1080/01445348608837095CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedle, Simon. 2012. “Thomas Hobbes and the Reception of Early-Modern Epicureanism.” PhD thesis, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Friedman, Jane. 2013. “Suspended Judgment.” Philosophical Studies 162 (2): 165–181. doi:10.1007/s11098-011-9753-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geach, Peter. 1981. “The Religion of Thomas Hobbes.” Religious Studies 17 (4): 549–558. 10.1017/S0034412500013305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glover, Willis B. 1965. “God and Thomas Hobbes.” In Hobbes Studies, edited by Brown, K. C., 141–168. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gorham, Geoffrey. 2013. “The Theological Foundation of Hobbesian Physics: A Defence of Corporeal God.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (2): 240–261. 10.1080/09608788.2012.692663CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, Ian. 2006. The Emergence of Probability. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511817557CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hepburn, R. W. 1972. “Hobbes on the Knowledge of God.” In Hobbes and Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Cranston, Maurice and Peters, Richard S., 85–108. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. (1668) 1680. An Historical Narration Concerning Heresie, And the Punishment thereof. London.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. (1668) 1682. An Answer to a Book Published by Dr. Bramhall, late Bishop of Derry; called The Catching of Leviathan. Together With an Historical Narration Concerning Heresie, And the Punishment thereof. London: For W. Crooke at the Green Dragon.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1839. Vol. 1 of De Corpore. In The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Edited by Molesworth, William. 11 vols. London: John Bohn.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1839–45a. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Edited by Molesworth, William. 11 vols. London: John Bohn.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1839–45b. Opera Philosophica Quae Latine Scripsit Omnia. Edited by Molesworth, William. 5 vols. London: John Bohn.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1840. An Historical Narration concerning Heresy, and the Punishment thereof. In Vol. 4 of The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Edited by Molesworth, William. 11 vols. London: John Bohn.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1973a. Critique du De Mundo de Thomas White. Edited by Jacquot, Jean and Whitmore Jones, Harold. Paris: Vrin-CNRS.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1973b. Objectiones Tertiæ. In Vol. 7 of Ouevres de Descartes. Edited by Adam, Charles and Tanner, Paul. Revised ed. 12 vols. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1976. Thomas White’s De Mundo Examined. Translated by Whitmore Jones, Harold. London: Bradford University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1983a. De Cive: The English Version. Edited by Warrender, Howard. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1983b. De Cive: The Latin Version. Edited by Warrender, Howard. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1984. “Third Set of Objections with Author’s Replies.” In The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, edited by Cottingham, John, Stoothoff, Robert and Murdoch, Dugald, 121–137. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1994a. The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes. Edited by Malcom, Noel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1994b. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic: Part I, Human Nature, Part II, De Corpore Politico, with Three Lives. Edited by Gaskin, J. C. A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 2012. Leviathan: The English and Latin Texts. Edited by Malcolm, Noel. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 10.1093/actrade/9780199602643.book.1Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Kinch. 2004. “The de facto Turn in Hobbes’s Political Philosophy.” In Leviathan After 350 Years, edited by Sorell, Tom and Foisneau, Luc, 33–74. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264612.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, Thomas. 2015. “Hobbes’s First Cause.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 53 (4): 647–667. 10.1353/hph.2015.0078CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jesseph, Douglas. 1996. “Hobbes and the Method of Natural Science.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, edited by Sorell, Tom, 86–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CCOL0521410193CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jesseph, Douglas. 2002. “Hobbes’s Atheism.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy 26: 140–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jesseph, Douglas. 2010. “Scientia in Hobbes.” In Scientia in Early Modern Philosophy: Seventeenth-Century Thinkers on Demonstrative Knowledge from First Principles, edited by Sorell, Tom, Rogers, G. A. and Kraye, Jill, 117–127. Dordrecht: Springer. 10.1007/978-90-481-3077-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Poidevin, Robin. 2010. Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/actrade/9780199575268.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leijenhorst, Cees. 2004. “Hobbes’ Corporeal Deity.” Rivista di storia della filosofia 59 (1): 73–95.Google Scholar
Malcolm, Noel. 2002. Aspects of Hobbes. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 10.1093/0199247145.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinich, A. P. 1992. The Two Gods of Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511624810CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milton, Philip. 1993. “Hobbes, Heresy and Lord Arlington.” History of Political Thought 14: 501–546.Google Scholar
Mintz, Samuel I. 1969. The Hunting of Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Overhoff, Jürgen. 2000. “The Theology of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 51 (3): 527–555. 10.1017/S0022046900005157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pacchi, Arrigo. 1988. “Hobbes and the Problem of God.” In Perspectives on Thomas Hobbes, edited by Rogers, G. A. J. and Ryan, Alan, 171–187. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Polin, Raymond. 1953. Politique et philosophie chez Thomas Hobbes [Politics and Philosophy in Thomas Hobbes]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Rosenkranz, Sven. 2007. “Agnosticism as a Third Stance.” Mind 116 (461): 55–104. doi:10.1093/mind/fzm055.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, Bertrand. 1992. Theory of Knowledge: The 1913 Manuscript. Edited by Eames, Elizabeth Ramsden and Blackwell, Kenneth. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salmon, Nathan. 1995. “Being of Two Minds: Belief with Doubt.” Noûs 29 (1): 1–20. doi:10.2307/2215724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Springborg, Patricia. 2012. “Hobbes’s Challenge to Descartes, Bramhall and Boyle: A Corporeal God.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 20 (5): 903–934. 10.1080/09608788.2012.718606CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1950. Natural Right and History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1959. What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. E. 1965. “The Ethical Doctrine of Hobbes.” In Hobbes Studies, edited by Brown, K. C., 35–55. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Warrender, Howard. 1957. The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: His Theory of Obligation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wright, George. 2006. Religion, Politics and Thomas Hobbes. The Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar