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    Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3
    Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3
    Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3
    Ebook91 pages59 minutes

    Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3

    By Razie Mah

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    About this ebook

    Modernism belongs to the Age of Ideas. According to John Deely, two figures mark the turning point from the Latin Age to the Age of Ideas. They are Rene Descartes, pointing the way to the Age of Ideas, and John Poinsot, arriving at the triadic nature of the sign relation. The time is 1650 AD.
    These comments examine a book published in 1651 AD, precisely at the turning identified by John Deely. In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes builds a model of the subject and the commonwealth based on natural civil laws.
    Hobbes’ description of the subject and the commonwealth intimate the modern concepts of the citizen and the civil state. For that reason, he was called a monster. He is the prophet of the modern totalitarian state.
    These comments differ from modernist commentaries, which try to identify where Hobbes went wrong, his system of thought, and so on. Instead, they show that Hobbes’ models of speech and power are relational structures. They are precisely the types of structures that John Poinsot elucidated in the waning days of the Latin Age. They are also the types of structures that Thomas Hobbes rejected in his human mechanical philosophy.
    Part 2 is entitled, “On the Christian Commonwealth”.
    Hobbes demonstrates that his model also conforms to scripture. I use the category-based nested form to illuminate this. Hobbes raises questions on nature of divine intervention in the continuum of time. The result is a wide-ranging discussion on the theological underpinnings of his model.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRazie Mah
    Release dateNov 25, 2016
    ISBN9781942824190
    Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3
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      Comments on Thomas Hobbes Book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3 - Razie Mah

      Comments on Thomas Hobbes’ book (1651) The Leviathan Part 3

      Razie Mah

      Published for Smashwords

      7816 U0’

      Note on Text

      This 16,600 word commentary is a nested form re-articulation of Part 3 of Thomas Hobbes’, The Leviathan. Part 3 is on the Christian commonwealth.

      Written around the time of the Puritan Revolution in England and at the dawn of the so-called post-religious Western enlightenment, The Leviathan is one of many signposts marking (what John Deely calls) the end of the Latin Age and the beginning of the Age of Ideas.

      My goal is not to analyze the text. My goal is to associate the text to ‘ways of thought that the Age of Ideas buried’. These ways of thought germinate in the postmodern Age of Semiotics.

      In this endeavor, I further elaborate a nested-from model of society, originally presented in How To Define the Word ‘Religion’.

      Quotes are used to group words together for easier reading.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 32 of a Christian commonwealth 0398

      Chapter 33 on the scope of the books of Holy Scripture 0409

      Chapter 34 on the signification of spirit, angel and interpretation in the books of the Holy Scripture 0427

      Chapter 35 on signification in scripture of the kingdom of God, Holy Spirit and sacrament 0431

      Chapter 36 of the word of God and the prophets 0442

      Chapter 37 of miracles and their use 0454

      Chapter 38 on eternal life and redemption in scripture 0464

      Chapter 39 on the signification of the word ‘church’ in the scriptures 0491

      Chapter 40 on the rights of the Kingdom of God in the Old Testament 0503

      Chapter 41 on the office of our blessed Savior 0510

      Chapter 42 on ecclesiastical power 0522

      Chapter 43 on what is necessary for personal salvation...0654

      Chapter 32 of a Christian commonwealth

      0398 In considering the nature of the Christian commonwealth, Hobbes extends his arguments from the natural civil laws to the prophetic word of God. He relies on natural reason, even though the scriptures stand above reason. The scriptures are not contrary to reason, unless interpreted incorrectly.

      0399 The mysteries of religion must be taken whole, like a pill that is to be swallowed and not chewed. Understanding becomes captive to obedience, not to any human’s, but to God’s will. Trust and faith renders this. I may doubt any man who claims that God spoke to him or that he saw God in a dream.

      0400 Deuteronomy sets the standard. The prophet must both work miracles and teach the established tradition. Miracle workers can lead to false gods. Teachers may speak in pride. Deuteronomy also warns against those prophets whose claims have not come to pass.

      The coincidence of miracles and right teaching is found in scripture. They are no longer found today.

      0401 Thus, Hobbes turns to scriptures to detail the nature of the Christian commonwealth.

      Comments on chapter 32

      0402 What is a book, if not a prophecy? It is both a miracle (that it ever came into existence) and a teaching (which may or may not lead to the truth). A book becomes prophetic when what happens in the past is repeated in the future. This is what makes The Leviathan a prophetic work.

      0403 Consider this scenario: The people in one tradition somehow find a path to the truth. Then, those in the tradition somehow lose orientation. They somehow disconnect from the original illumination. Why would a prophet be needed? A prophet reconnects the people to the original illumination.

      0404 Hobbes questions the value of ‘foretelling the future’: We cannot know whether one event or another is ‘a prophecy coming to pass’. Therefore, this mark of the prophet is not useful.

      In suggesting this, Hobbes considers ‘foretelling’ as ‘picturing future events’, rather than ‘imagining events that would be avoided with the prophet’s witness’ or ‘imagining potential events so that the believers would recognize a danger’ or ‘seeing events in the present that will occur again in the future’. If the potential events do not occur, is the prophecy false?

      0405 Clearly, Hobbes brings the word ‘foretelling’ out of the realm of possibility and into the realm of actuality. This is a hallmark of the Age of Ideas.

      Remember, The Leviathan was published around 7450 U0’. The Age of Ideas is coming to a close now, in 7816 U0’.

      0406 The prophet is a witness, so ‘the act of foretelling’ is ‘a call to witness, not of the future, per se, but of the telling itself’. To ‘foretell’ is ‘to call others to recognize possibilities’, particularly ‘the possibility that what the prophet sees will be repeated’.

      Prophetic awareness directs attention3aa to movements1aa similar to what a prophet saw (and thus, foretold3aa). Hobbes does not want that.

      According to the interscope of the citizen, the resulting impression2aa should not be interpreted in terms of invisible powers (such as a god that shapes the future)1ba, but should be interpreted in terms of facts (items that are so obvious that they are subject to reason)1ba.

      0407 So why does Hobbes

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