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Rhetoric and Philosophy in Hobbes' Leviathan

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Rhetoric and Philosophy in Hobbes' Leviathan ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: 17TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY Volume 5 RHETORIC AND PHILOSOPHY IN HOBBES’ LEVIATHAN Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfrancis.com RHETORIC AND PHILOSOPHY IN HOBBES’ LEVIATHAN RAIA PROKHOVNIK i~ ~~o~!~~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published in 1991 by Garland This edition first published in 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1991 Raia Prokhovnik All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-367-27875-5 (Set) ISBN: 978-0-429-29844-8 (Set) (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-367-33103-0 (Volume 5) (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-31799-6 (Volume 5) (ebk) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. RHETORIC AND PHILOSOPHY IN HOBBES' LEVIATHAN Raia Prokhovnik GARLAND PUBLISHING, INC. New York London 1991 Copyright © 1991 by Raia Prokhovnik AJl Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prokhovnik, Raia. Rhetoric and philosophy in Hobbes' Leviathan/ Raia Prokhovnik. p. cm.-(Political theory and political philosophy) Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.-Landon School of Economics and Political Science, 1981). Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8153~0142-1 (alk. paper) 1. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. Leviathan. 2. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588- 1679-Literary art. I. Title. II. Series. JC153.H659P76 1991 320.1'092-dc20 91-10709 Printed on acid-free, 250-year-life paper. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA For Gary, Eleanor and Conal and to the memory of Kay Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfrancis.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of illustrations ........ .. .. ... .......... .. .. .......... .. ..... .. .. .. .... ix Preface............................................................................. XI Chapter 1. The Notion of Rhetoric 1 2. Figurative Language in Philosophical Understanding 18 3. Hobbes and Seventeenth-Century Literary Criticism 56 4. Hobbes on Language and Rhetoric 105 5. Hobbes and the Engraved Title-Page of Leviathan 130 6. Hobbes and Hooker 149 7. Allegory and Philosophy in Leviathan 195 8. Conclusion 223 lllustrations -Examples of Seventeenth-Century Engraved Title-Pages 226 Bibliography 238 vii Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfrancis.com LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651 Engraved title-page by Abraham Bosse (?) in Molesworth, English Works, vol.3, 1839-45 227 Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, first edition, Paris, 1642 Engraved title-page by "Math. F." in Colvin, Early Engravings and Engravers, 1905 228 Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Amsterdam, 1647 Engraved title-page by anonymous engraver in Johnson, Catalogue of Engraved and Etched English Title-Pages, 1934 229 Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Amsterdam, 1647 Engraved title-page by anonymous engraver Reproduced by permission of The Librarian, Glasgow University 230 Thomas Hobbes, Philosophical/ Elements of Government and Civill Society Engraved title-page by Robert Vaughan, 1651 Reproduced by permission of The Librarian, Bodleian Library (Shelfmark Vet.A3.f.l168) 231 Thomas Hobbes, Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Civil Society. Engraved title-page by Robert Vaughan, 1651 Reproduced by permission of The Librarian, Aberdeen University 232 Thomas Hobbes, translation of The Wor~es of Homer, 1677 Title-page by anonymous engraver in Colvin, Early Engravings and Engravers, 1905 233 Thomas Hobbes, translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, 1629 Engraved title-page by Thomas Cecil in Molesworth, English Works, vol.S, 1839-45 234 ix Page Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 1662 Engraved title-page by William Hole in Johnson, Catalogue of Engraved and Etched English Title-Pages, 1934 235 :Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, 1612 Engraved title-page by William Hole in Johnson, Catalogue of Engraved and Etched English Title-Pages, 1934 236 John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, 1653 Engraved title-page by Thomas Cross in Colvin, Early Engravings and Engravers, 1905 237 X PREFACE Since this thesis was written, many aspects of Hobbes' thinking have been explored in books and articles. The area of studies on rhetoric has also flourished, particularly amongst American writers. These developments, where they have a bearing on the subject of this dissertation, have been incorporated into the text and the updated bibliography. However nothing published in the last ten years has touched directly upon the issues discussed in this thesis. The best general work on Hobbes in that time is Richard Tuck, Hobbes (Oxford University Press, 1989), while Michael Oakeshott' sintraduction to his edition of Leviathan (Blackwell, Oxford, 1946) remains the freshest and most stimulating general treatment of Hobbes' thinking. The work of Quentin Skinner and his associates, on the historical context of ideas, has grown over the past ten years and is to be welcomed. It may perhaps help to break down the propensity to tuck bits of Hobbes' thinking into different boxes, as though they were separate. I would like to thank Dr. Robert Orr for the generous encour­ agement he gave me, and for all the valuable criticism he gave my thesis, and the London School of Economics for the Graduate Studentship which enabled me to continue the research for this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Conal Condren for his many fine critical insights, my father for the' manifold facets' of his confidence in me, and Gary Browning for many congenial hours spent discussing political philosophy, and for a shared world. xi Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfrancis.com CHAPTER! The Notion of Rhetoric Since the early Sophists taught and practised rhetoric, the term has accumulated a whole variety of meanings, significances and connotations. In the same way that many other words in our vocabulary, such as' democracy',' science',' philosophy' and 'nature', have histories whose courses can be charted, of changes of meaning and use, so the term' rhetoric' has been used, throughout the history of western thought, to refer to different conceptions and understandings. For the Sophists, rhetoric was both an art and a science; for Plato the rhetorical methods of the poets were opposed to philosophy; for Aristotle 'good' rhetoric was distinguished from 'bad' rhetoric; for the sixteenth century handbook writers, rhetoric provided the means for discourse to both teach and entertain; while for Hobbes rhetoric is a morally neutral technique but some uses of language are reprehensible. And in the modern resurgence of interest in the subject, claims are made for the philosophical character of the postulates of rhetoric. To "elucidate the frame of reference within which the term is to be understood, and so identify the meaning one wishes to employ, is the first task of someone who now wishes to use the term 'rhetoric' to approach a piece of writing. In contemporary currency, the term 'rhetoric' has a strong pejorative connotation, signifying elegant but empty speech designed, not only to impress and persuade but also to deceive an audience into subscribing to and actingupona conviction which sober common sense would condemn. The term carrie's with it the suspicion of being a disguise and smokescreen for a fundamentally unacceptable purpose, the suspicion that a speaker or writer who' uses rhetoric' is one who seeks to hide a motive with which we really would not agree, behind a dazzlingly compelling facade. The discredit that surrounds the term in contemporary usage is reflected in the predominance of pejorative definitions offered by the Shorter Oxford dictionary. 'Rhetoric' is defined as, firstly, the art of, or a treatise on "using language so as to persuade or influence others; the body of rules to be observed by a speaker or writer in order that he may express himself with eloquence"; secondly, as 2 Rhetoric and Philosophy in Hobbes1 Leviathan "elegance or eloquence of language; eloquent speech or writing. Speech or writing in terms calculated to persuade; hence, language characterised by artificial or ostentatious expression"; and thirdly, as" skill in or faculty of using eloquent and persuasive language". It goes on to define 'rhetorical' as "eloquent, eloquently expressed"; "expressed in terms calculated to persuade; hence, of the nature of mere rhetoric (as opposed to sober statement or argument)"; "of, belonging to, concerned with, or comprised in, the art of rhetoric"; and "of persons: given to the use of rhetoric". But as well as reflecting the discredit into which the term has fallen in contemporary usage, these definitions also indicate two significant features
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