Hobbes ja tiedon politiikka

Authors

• Mikko Jakonen

Abstract

The article looks at the politics of knowledge in the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). It starts with an overall claim that Hobbes’s science of politics highlights the political struggles of the 17th century, especially political struggles at the level of philosophy and knowledge. The article analyses, firstly, the link between Hobbes’s critique of the translation of the Bible and his critique of the Pope’s power in universities. Secondly, it explains how Hobbes’s scientific method was meant to be a profound political answer to the crisis of scholastics and philosophy. Thirdly, the article aims to show Hobbes’s own political aims with his political philosophy and the ways in which he was ready to modify his own doctrines to gain success for his political philosophy. Hobbes did not only build his scientia civilis on the basis of physics and the new scientific method, but instead, scientific method is something that can be understood only in political terms.