On the birth of civil power in Thomas Hobbes

Abstract

The present study offers a new hypothesis about the genesis of civil power in Thomas Hobbes, based on the study of the classical passage from the state of nature to the civil state. We consider that this passage, beyond the canonical interpretations, is a topos, found in the rhetorical tradition, especially in Cícero, in his De inventione. In this context, eloquent discourse appears as an original and fundamental element of the civil state. This appropriation by Hobbes emerges from a perspective that treats the art of rhetoric as a source of knowledge, overlaying the question of the ornateness of language in such a way as to make up an important element within his conception of civil power.