Philosophy and Rhetoric in Leviathan: Revisiting the Rapprochement Thesis

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to a special issue of Hobbes Studies considering Quentin Skinner’s Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes at thirty. One of the central claims of Skinner’s book is that, having rejected humanist methods of composition based on the manipulation of rhetorical proofs for a method of purely philosophical reasoning founded on demonstrative certainty, Hobbes later reversed himself, effecting a rapprochement between rhetoric and philosophy. This contribution to the special issue argues, first, that the main textual basis for the rapprochement (a passage in the “Review, and Conclusion” to Leviathan) does not actually provide evidence for a volte face. It is shown, rather, to comprise a eulogy of Sidney Godolphin. The paper then examines some recent versions of the rapprochement thesis, which draw on the premise that Hobbes conceived of the end of philosophy as human benefit rather than truth.