Whatsoever you require that others should do to you, that do ye to them. Ch. 14, p. 190.
I laughed out loud when I read this new twist on an old gem. Hobbes has reinvented the Golden Rule to be not so much a positive "the more love you give away the more you shall get in return," but a defensive "don't give people any more credit than you know they should give to you." Is this really the law of the Gospel? Is this really how we should think of one another and of ourselves?
Hobbes in this text seems to be trying to get people to take reframe the way they look at themselves, at religion, and at a common-wealth and ask themselves if the beliefs they had previously held on these topics are really the way things are. He seems to be trying to ground everything in reality and no longer support common notions just because they are common especially if these notions have become overly romanticized. Is this a breath of fresh air or a digression into just another extreme?
No comments:
Post a Comment