Ideals as Interests in Hobbes's Leviathan

Although interpreters of Hobbes's political philosophy have all agreed that Hobbes took as his primary task providing an answer to the question of how domestic social order can be established and maintained perpetually, there remains among Hobbes interpreters serious disagreement over what might be called the strategy that Hobbes is thought to employ in executing this fundamental task. The specific characterizations of Hobbes's strategy put forward by the various interpreters – their views of how Hobbes was proceeding – differ in ways that have a profound effect on the resulting positions attributed to Hobbes – their views of what Hobbes actually argued. Nonstandard interpreters such as Warrender and Taylor have held that Hobbes sought to provide a basis for social order by demonstrating that people have a moral obligation to obey their sovereign, and have thus attributed to him views and arguments that differ dramatically from those alleged by standard philosophical interpreters, who see Hobbes as attempting to provide a basis for social order by demonstrating that people, who desire their selfpreservation above all else, would be irrational ever to disobey their sovereign.