“… That every man acknowledge other for his equal.” Acknowledgement as “natural law” by Hobbes [Spanish]

Authors

  • Carlos Emel Rendón Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín

Abstract

 

This paper deals with the doctrine of recognition that Hobbes clearly implied throughout his political writings. To this end, it deals with the systematic exposition of the canon of “natural laws” that Hobbes elaborated in works such as Elements of Natural and Political Law, Treatise on the Citizen and the Leviathan. Our underlying thesis is that the exposition of these laws, also called “moral laws” by Hobbes, leads the author to postúlate the idea that the “natural equality” of men, by which he understands equality of rights, not equality of power, is only assured to the extent that individuals are intersubjectively recognized as bearers of the same rights that, as men, belong to them. This thesis seeks to show that, contrary to the traditional reading of Hobbes, which concentrates on the absolutist nature of power, Hobbes traces the very possibility of civil and political life, not to the mediation of the absolute State and its coercive power, but to the intersubjective recognition of rights, which obtains its normative force from the moral conscience of each man. The present article intends to show that with its postulate, Hobbes manages to outline a protomoral of recognition, which would not remain without repercussion in the philosophical discourse of modernity. This purpose is one with the one to show the difficulties, the tensions and the limits of the Hobbesian approach.

 

Author Biography

Carlos Emel Rendón, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín

Universidad del Norte

References

<p>Hobbes, T. (1966a). De Corpore Político or the Elements of Law. Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T. (1966b). De Cive. Opera Philosophica. Vol. II. Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T. (1966c). Leviathan. Or the matter, form and power of a Commonwealth ecclesiastical and civil. Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T (1966d). Opera Philosophica Omnia. Leviathan. Sive de Materia, Forma et Potestate Ecclesiasticae et Civils. Vol. III. Darmstadt: Scientia Verlag.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T. (1999). Tratado Sobre el Ciudadano. Madrid: Trotta.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T. (2005). Elementos de Derecho Natural y Político. Madrid: Alianza.</p><p><br />Hobbes, T. (2006). Leviatán. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.</p><p>Bibliografía secundaria<br />Eggers, D. (2008). Die Naturzustandstheorie von Thomas Hobbes. Eine vergleichende Analyse von The Elements of Law, De Cive und den englischen und lateinischen Fassungen des Leviathan. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.</p><p><br />Strauss, L. (2006). La filosofía política de Hobbes. Su fundamento y su génesis. México: Fondo de Cultura.</p><p><br />Kondylis, P. (2002). Die Aufklärung im Rahmen des neuzeitlichen Rationalismus. Hamburg: Meiner.</p><p><br />Berns, L. (2010). "Thomas Hobbes", en: Leo Strauss, Joseph Cropsey (Eds). Historia de la filosofía política. México. Fondo de Cultura Económica.</p><p><br />Fichte, J. G. (1994) Fundamento del derecho natural según los principios de la Doctrina de la Ciencia. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales.</p><p><br />Habermas, J. (2002) Teoría y Praxis. Estudios de filosofía social. Madrid: Tecnos.</p><p><br />Henrich, D. (1982). Selbstverhältnisse. Stuttgart: Reclam.</p><p><br />Honneth, A. (1992). Kampf um Anerkennung. Zur moralischen Grammatik sozialer Konflikte. Frankfurt. Suhrkamp.</p><p><br />Honneth, A. (2018). Anerkennung: Eine europäische Ideengeschichte. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.</p><p><br />Kant, I. (1994). Crítica de la razón práctica. Salamanca: Sígueme.</p><p><br />Kondylis, P. (2002). Die Aufklärung im Rahmen des neuzeitlichen Rationalismus. Hamburg: Meiner.</p><p><br />Ricoeur, P. (2006). Caminos del reconocimiento. Tres estudios. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.</p><p><br />Siep, L. (2015). Der Staat als irdischer Gott. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.</p><p><br />Strauss, L. (2006) La filosofía política de Hobbes. Su fundamento y su génesis. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.</p><p> </p>
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No. 31 (2019): July-December

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