Hobbes and natural sociability: considerations on a historiographical and anthropological topic

Abstract

In this article, I will analyze an underrated topic in Hobbes's political thought: the natural sociability. This subject has been neglected since Hobbes is traditionally regarded to deny natural sociability. I do not intend to reject that Hobbes mainly understands political sociability as artificial and conventional. I want to comment the passages in which natural sociability appears in Hobbes's works. The natural sociability appears in two ways. First, I will examine the basic psychological type ­­–the vain– which is characterized for being socially natural. Second, I will describe the four natural societies included in Hobbes's works. Family, the natural coalition against who is regarded to be the naturally strongest, the military group, defensive or aggressive, of short duration and the social situation created after the collapse of civil society. The principal consequence of my interpretation is that, although Hobbes was well aware of natural sociability, he considered it as being incapable of attaining the peace, qualitative and total, which is specifically desired by Modern politics