Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T12:24:16.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Fear of Death and the Longing for Immortality: Hobbes and Thucydides on Human Nature and the Problem of Anarchy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2000

Peter J. Ahrensdorf
Peter J. Ahrensdorf*
Affiliation:
Davidson College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent challenges to the modern secular state invite us to reexamine the arguments made by its theoretical founders, especially Hobbes. Hobbes argues that the desire for security is the most reliable and rational desire of our nature, and the state based on satisfying that desire is fully in harmony with human nature and therefore fully capable of solving the problem of anarchy. I will examine his argument that anarchy, although in some sense the natural human condition, can be overcome once and for all through political institutions that ensure the rational fear of death will control humans' destabilizing hopes and longings for immortality. I then turn to Thucydides, the classical thinker whom Hobbes admired most and who seems closest to Hobbes in outlook, and consider his more somber thesis: Because human hopes for immortality are more powerful than the fear of violent death, anarchy will return over and over again.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 579 - 593
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ahrensdorf, Peter J. 1997. “Thucydides' Realistic Critique of Realism.” Polity 30 (Winter): 231–65.10.2307/3235218CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aristotle, . 1947. Rhetoric, trans. Freese, John Henry. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Aubrey, John. 1975. Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. Dick, Oliver Lawson. London: Seeker and Warburg.Google Scholar
Augustine, . 1994. Political Writings, trans. Tkacz, Michael W. and Kries, Douglas, ed. Fortin, Ernest L. and Kries, Douglas with the collaboration of Roland Gunn. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Blits, Jan. 1989. “Hobbesian Fear.” Political Theory 17 (August): 417–31.10.1177/0090591789017003003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolotin, David. 1987. “Thucydides.” In History of Political Philosophy, 3d ed., ed. Strauss, Leo and Cropsey, Joseph. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 7–32.Google Scholar
Brown, Clifford W. Jr. 1987. “Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Derivation of Anarchy.” History of Political Thought 8 (Spring): 33–62.Google Scholar
Bull, Hedley. 1981. “Hobbes and the International Anarchy.” Social Research 48 (Winter): 717–38.Google Scholar
Cogan, Marc. 1981. The Human Thing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Connor, W. Robert. 1984. Thucydides. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Delmas, Philippe. 1995. The Rosy Future of War. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eisenach, Eldon. 1981. The Two Worlds of Liberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Euben, J. Peter. 1990. The Tragedy of Political Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691218182CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairbanks, Charles Jr. 1995. “The Postcommunist Wars.” Journal of Democracy 6 (October): 18–34.10.1353/jod.1995.0066CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairbanks, Charles Jr. 1997. “The Public Void: Antipolitics in the Former Soviet Union.” In The End of Politics? ed. Schedler, Andreas. London: Macmillan and St. Martin's. Pp. 91–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finley, John H. Jr. 1963. Thucydides. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Forde, Steven. 1989. The Ambition to Rule. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.10.7591/9781501745782CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. 1900. La Cite Antique. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Gert, Bernard. 1972. “Introduction” to Man and Citizen. New York: Humanities Press. Pp. 3–32.Google Scholar
Gert, Bernard. 1996. “Hobbes's Psychology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, ed. Sorell, Tom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 157–74.10.1017/CCOL0521410193.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 1995. One for All: The Logic of Group Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hassner, Pierre. 1995. La Violence et la Paix: De la Bombe Atomique au Nettoyage Ethnique. Paris: Editions Esprit.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1889a. De Corpore. In English Works, vol. 1, ed. Molesworth, William. London: John Bohn. Pp. 1–532.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1889b. Human Nature. In English Works, vol. 4, ed. Molesworth, William. London: John Bohn. Pp. 1–76.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1889c. De Corpore Politico. In English Works, vol. 4, ed. Molesworth, William. London: John Bohn. Pp. 77–228.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1972a. De Cive, trans. Hobbes, Thomas. In Man and Citizen, ed. Gert, Bernard. New York: Humanities Press. Pp. 87–386.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1972b. De Homine, trans. Wood, Charles T., Scott-Craig, T. S. K., and Gert, Bernard. In Man and Citizen, ed. Gert, Bernard. New York: Humanities Press. Pp. 33–85.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1975. Hobbes's Thucydides, ed. Schlatter, Richard. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1982. Leviathan, ed. Macpherson, C. B.. Harmond-sworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Homer, . 1957. Odyssey, 2 vols., ed. Stanford, W. B.. London: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, Michael. 1993. Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism. New York: Noonday.Google Scholar
Johnson, Laurie M. 1993. Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Interpretation of Realism. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, David. 1986. The Rhetoric of Leviathan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691219325CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 1993. The New Cold War? Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520915015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Robert. 1994. “The Coming Anarchy.” Atlantic Monthly 273 (February): 44–76.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Robert. 1996. The Ends of the Earth: A Journey at the Dawn of the 21st Century. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Kateb, George. 1989. “Hobbes and the Irrationality of Politics.” Political Theory 17 (August): 355–91.10.1177/0090591789017003001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kavka, Gregory S. 1983. “Hobbes's War of All Against All.” Ethics 93 (January): 291–310.10.1086/292435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepel, Gilles. 1994. The Revenge of God. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Klosko, George, and Rice, Daryl. 1985. “Thucydides and Hobbes's State of Nature.” History of Political Thought 6 (Winter): 405–9.Google Scholar
Kraynak, Robert P. 1990. History and Modernity in the Thought of Thomas Hobbes. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Abraham. 1989a. Speeches and Writings: 1832–1858. New York: Library of America.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Abraham. 1989b. Speeches and Writings: 1859–1865. New York: Library of America.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C. B. 1970. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C. B. 1982. “Introduction” to Leviathan. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Pp. 9–63.Google Scholar
Manent, Pierre. 1977. Naissances de la Politique Moderne: Machiavel, Hobbes, Rousseau. Paris: Éditions Payot.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. Jr. 1971. “Hobbes and the Science of Indirect Government.” American Political Science Review 6 (March): 97–110.10.2307/1955046CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. Jr. 1989. Taming the Prince: the Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. Jr. 1996. Machiavelli's Virtue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226503721.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mestrovic, Stjepan Gabriel. 1994. The Balkanization of the West. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moynihan, Daniel Patrick. 1993. Pandaemonium: Ethnicity in International Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1967. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Kaufmann, Walter. New York: Viking. Pp. 103–439.Google Scholar
Oakeshott, Michael. 1960. “Introduction” to Leviathan. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Pp. vii–lxvi.Google Scholar
Orwin, Clifford. 1988. “Stasis and Plague: Thucydides on the Dissolution of Society.” Journal of Politics 50 (November): 831–47.10.2307/2131381CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orwin, Clifford. 1994. The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton: NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691219400CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Michael. 1992. Love of Glory and the Common Good. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Pangle, Thomas L. 1976. “The Moral Basis of National Security: Four Historical Perspectives.” In Historical Dimensions of National Security Problems, ed. Knorr, Klaus. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Pp. 307–72.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plato, . 1976. Laws. In Platonis Opera, vol. 5, ed. Burnet, John. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 14–436.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1977a. Apology of Socrates. In Platonis Opera, vol. 1, ed. Burnet, John. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 25–59.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1977b. Crito. In Platonis Opera, vol. 1, ed. Burnet, John. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 61–78.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1977c. Phaedo. In Platonis Opera, vol. 1, ed. Burnet, John. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 79–172.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1978. Republic. In Platonis Opera, vol. 4, ed. Burnet, John. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 327a–621d.Google Scholar
Pouncey, Peter R. 1980. The Necessities of War. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, Alan. 1996. “Hobbes's Political Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, ed. Sorell, Tom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 208–45.10.1017/CCOL0521410193.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlatter, Richard. 1945. “Thomas Hobbes and Thucydides.” Journal of the History of Ideas 6 (June): 350–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1965. “History and Ideology in the English Revolution.” Historical Journal 8 (2): 151–78.10.1017/S0018246X65000019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1966. “The Ideological Context of Hobbes's Political Thought.” Historical Journal 9 (3): 286–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1978. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1989. “The State.” In Political Innovation and Conceptual Change, ed. Ball, Terence, Farr, James, Hanson, Russell L.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 90–131.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1996. Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511598579CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slomp, Gabriella. 1990. “Hobbes, Thucydides, and the Three Greatest Things.” History of Political Thought 11 (Winter): 565–86.Google Scholar
Sophocles, . 1979. Antigone, ed. Jebb, Richard C. and Shuckburgh, E. S.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1952. The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, trans. Sinclair, Elsa M.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1959. “On the Basis of Hobbes's Political Philosophy.” In What Is Political Philosophy and Other Studies. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Pp. 170–96.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1964. The City and Man. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Tamas, G. M. 1994. A Disquisition on Civil Society.” Social Research 61 (Summer): 205–21.Google Scholar
Tamas, G. M. 1996. “Ethnarchy and Ethno-Anarchism.” Social Research 63 (Spring): 147–90.Google Scholar
Tarcov, Nathan. 1984. Locke's Education for Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Thucydides, . 1963. History, 2 vols., ed. Jones, Henry Stuart and Powell, J. Enoch. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Trainor, Brian T. 1985. “The Politics of Peace: The Role of the Political Covenant in Hobbes's Leviathan.” Review of Politics 47 (July): 347–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 1990. “Hobbes and Locke on Toleration.” In Thomas Hobbes and Political Theory, ed. Dietz, Mary G.. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Pp. 153–71.10.2307/j.ctv1p2gmg6.13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 1993. Philosophy and Government 1572–1651. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511558634CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 1996a. “Introduction” to Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. ix–lxxii.Google Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 1996b. “Hobbes's Moral Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, ed. Sorell, Tom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 175–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warrender, Howard. 1983. “Editor's Introduction” to De Cive: The Latin Version. Oxford: Clarendon. Pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Xenophon, . 1968. Hellenica, 2 vols., trans. Brownson, Carleton L.. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar