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Eurasia in the Post-pandemic Political and Socioeconomic Prospects Read chapter Read first chapter

2023 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Thomas Hobbes and the Linguistic Construction of the International Political Space

Author : Nikolay Gudalov

Published in: Proceedings of Topical Issues in International Political Geography

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

I argue that Thomas Hobbes presaged the current concerns with language in International Relations (IR) and Political Geography, and that he and these concerns present, perhaps unexpectedly, similar promises and problems. In spite of the views limiting Hobbes to materialism, naturalism, individualism, or separating his science and rhetoric, language was key for him. The humans construct their reason and society (notably, the state) in language, it also influences their extra-social interactions; and the humans are themselves constrained and, in a sense, created by language. Intellectuals are tied to the construction of social reality. These basic ideas are widely shared by the current views of language in IR. Both Hobbes and they can be seen as stressing collective freedom, pluralism and responsibility. But the analysis of Hobbes also draws attention to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems that he and the current theories share due to relativist conceptions of language and rationality.

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Footnotes
1
In citing Hobbes’ works, I removed italics and (according to modern syntax) capitalisations.
 
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Metadata
Title
Thomas Hobbes and the Linguistic Construction of the International Political Space
Author
Nikolay Gudalov
Copyright Year
2023
Book
Proceedings of Topical Issues in International Political Geography

Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20619-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-20620-7

Copyright Year: 2023

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20620-7_16

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