Gnoseological scepticism as a consequence of Thomas Hobbes’ epistemic position: the limits of political artifice

Abstract

Thomas Hobbes states in Leviathan that, in order to secure lasting peace, we might secure lasting conditions of sovereignty. Accordingly, a number of mechanisms of eternity of life or artificial immortality are established: the succession of the sovereign; the government of doctrines and opinions; and the good government of the sovereign. However, if we consider the Hobbesian epistemic position, we find an intrinsic limitation for political science, since we are not able know with the same degree of certainty about human nature, whose action we want to restrict on the basis of politics, as we are able to know about the effects of the very mechanisms artificially constructed for this purpose. Consequently, Hobbesian gnoseological scepticism reveals itself as a fundamental limitation for politics.