(This is an intriguing project of an entry, when fully and properly developed. I do not even have to wait for the next round of revisions to develop this one whenever I feel sufficiently inspired to do it. Meantime, my hope is that the reader will treat this entry as a work in progress, even more than most of the others. One may argue that, from the asteroid belt of morality and justice, I have moved closer to the solid state of the planets, as we are about to start a multi-entry discussion, after Hobbes, of the matters of state, and next, of “superstate.” (What this means, will become clear shortly.) However, I am not quite willing to commit myself to a particular structure, and the still tentative course of action may not necessarily materialize that way. So, bear with me, and wait for the next stage.)
The opening salvo of Hobbes’s Leviathan (in its Introduction) contains a fascinating metaphor, comparing the State to the body and soul of a man. Here it is:
"For, by art is created that great Leviathan called Commonwealth, or State, which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defense it was intended; and in whose sovereignty is an artificial soul giving life and motion to the whole body while judiciary and executive officers are artificial joints, reward and punishment are the nerves, the wealth and riches of all members, its strength, salus populi, its business, counselors, its memory, equity and laws, artificial reason and will, concord is health, sedition is sickness, and civil war is death. Lastly, the pacts and covenants, by which the parts of the body politic were first made, set together and united, resemble the Let us make man fiat, said by God in the Creation.”
The greatest value of this clever metaphor is that it allows us to “humanize” the state, studying its political institutions like one studies human anatomy and physiology in a medical school. It also allows us to apply the scientific method of studying the human body to the fanciful construction of an ideal state (turning us into a more enlightened kind of followers of Dr. Frankenstein, that is, glorified social scientists, unlike those rather crude social pathologists, who have recently gained some notoriety, some in their writings, others in applying their half-baked fancies to real life). It has an additional function, I should say, in allowing us to rise one or more levels above Hobbes’s rank of the individual state, to examine the organization and functioning of international organizations, both real and ideal, arriving at some enlightening and sober conclusions.
Whenever we thus get to the business of utopian thinking, it allows us to keep our feet on the ground, even if our wishfully thinking head is high up there, in the pink clouds of the setting dusk, which, high up there, can, alas, be easily mistaken for a rising dawn. There is not much wishful thinking going on in the anatomy classes, mind you, and such sobriety is surely precious in that most irresponsible science of politics: social engineering.
(As an immediate follow-up, see my entry Dr. Frankenstein The Nation Builder, posted on this blog on March 31st, 2011.)
The opening salvo of Hobbes’s Leviathan (in its Introduction) contains a fascinating metaphor, comparing the State to the body and soul of a man. Here it is:
"For, by art is created that great Leviathan called Commonwealth, or State, which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defense it was intended; and in whose sovereignty is an artificial soul giving life and motion to the whole body while judiciary and executive officers are artificial joints, reward and punishment are the nerves, the wealth and riches of all members, its strength, salus populi, its business, counselors, its memory, equity and laws, artificial reason and will, concord is health, sedition is sickness, and civil war is death. Lastly, the pacts and covenants, by which the parts of the body politic were first made, set together and united, resemble the Let us make man fiat, said by God in the Creation.”
The greatest value of this clever metaphor is that it allows us to “humanize” the state, studying its political institutions like one studies human anatomy and physiology in a medical school. It also allows us to apply the scientific method of studying the human body to the fanciful construction of an ideal state (turning us into a more enlightened kind of followers of Dr. Frankenstein, that is, glorified social scientists, unlike those rather crude social pathologists, who have recently gained some notoriety, some in their writings, others in applying their half-baked fancies to real life). It has an additional function, I should say, in allowing us to rise one or more levels above Hobbes’s rank of the individual state, to examine the organization and functioning of international organizations, both real and ideal, arriving at some enlightening and sober conclusions.
Whenever we thus get to the business of utopian thinking, it allows us to keep our feet on the ground, even if our wishfully thinking head is high up there, in the pink clouds of the setting dusk, which, high up there, can, alas, be easily mistaken for a rising dawn. There is not much wishful thinking going on in the anatomy classes, mind you, and such sobriety is surely precious in that most irresponsible science of politics: social engineering.
(As an immediate follow-up, see my entry Dr. Frankenstein The Nation Builder, posted on this blog on March 31st, 2011.)
No comments:
Post a Comment