The Problem of Flattery and Hobbes’s Institutional Defense of Monarchy

Bibliographic Data

ID6384995
AuthorsDaniel J Kapust, Daniel Kapust (0000-0002-2547-5171, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume73
Issue3
Pages680-691
Publication date2011-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0022381611000387
OpenAlexW2115394680
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited12

This paper explores Hobbes’s defense of monarchy in light of the problem of flattery. In doing so, it addresses two central issues in Hobbes scholarship: his relationship to republicanism, and his attitude toward rhetoric. Faced with criticisms of monarchy rooted in the monarch’s susceptibility to flattery, Hobbes defends monarchy by focusing on the benefits of its unitary character. Rather than look to the virtue of monarchs as a bulwark against flattery, Hobbes argues that the singularity of the monarch diminishes the space and scope for flattery. Moreover, the unitary structure of monarchy provides an institutional context more favorable to taking counsel than forms of sovereignty incorporating many individuals. Hobbes’s defense of monarchy counters contemporary republicans, incorporating his suspicion of rhetoric without relying on claims of monarchical virtue

Art · Context (archaeology · Flattery · Literature · Monarchy · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Scholarship · Theology · Unitary state · Virtue · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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