Mortal Gods: Science, Politics, and the Humanist Ambitions of Thomas Hobbs

by Miller, Ted H.

• ISBN13: 9780271048918
• ISBN10: 0271048913
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-01
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

Although Thomas Hobbes is commonly acknowledged to have begun his intellectual career as a humanist, he is said to have discovered, in midlife, the wonders of geometry. The impact of this moment is thought to mark the beginning of a critical transition in which he turned from humanism to pursue the scientific study of politics. In Mortal Gods, Ted Miller challenges this view, arguing that he never ceased to be a humanist. The case for Hobbes as a humanist has been made before in light of his use of rhetoric. This book does something different. It rejects the humanist/mathematics dichotomy, and it shows us the humanist face of Hobbes's affinity for mathematical learning and practice. In this radical revision of received views, Miller reconnects Hobbes with the humanists who admired and cultivated mathematical learning, and with the material fruits of Great Britain's mathematical practitioners. The result is a fundamental recasting of Hobbes's project, a recontextualization of his thought within early modern humanist pedagogy and the court culture of the Stuart regimes. It stands as a new challenge to contemporary political theory and its settled narratives concerning politics, rationality, and violence.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vi
Introduction	p. 1
The Humanist Face of Hobbes's Mathematics, Part I	p. 9
Constraints That Enable the Imitation of God	p. 35
King of the Children of Pride: The Imitation of God in Context	p. 55
Architectonic Ambitions: Mathematics and the Demotion of Physics	p. 81
Eloquence and the Audience Thesis	p. 115
All Other Doctrines Exploded: Hobbes, History, and the Struggle over Teaching	p. 137
The Humanist Face of Hobbes's Mathematics, Part 2: Beviathan and the Making of a Masque-Text	p. 161
Conclusion	p. 201
Appendix: Who Is a Geometer?	p. 221
Notes	p. 239
Bibliography	p. 303
Index	p. 333
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