Hobbes on the State
Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS
00:00
The Modern State Is the Most Powerful Idea in Story of Political Ideas
In the modern conception of politics, you construct a state so that there is no choice. Government and people are still separate but we're locked together in a mechanical embrace. We depend on each other. They act for us in a way where it's quite hard to tease the two apart. The idea of the modern state is the most powerful, the most successful, and, as hobbs shows, the most frightening idea in story of political ideas. And it is the one that rules our world, still, for now, anyway, and maybe for a long time to come.
Transcript
Play full episode
