Religion, politics and rhetoric: outlines of the relationship between faith and reason in the civil state of Thomas Hobbes

• Grant number: 20/06208-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2020
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Hélio Alexandre da Silva
• Grantee: Vinícius Antonio Ramos Zecca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to understand the role of rhetoric in the relationship between religion and politics in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. We will start from the reflections presented by Quentin Skinner on the role of rhetoric in the thinking of the classic English autor; then it will be necessary to understand the fundamentals of the State for Hobbes and to diagnose the centrality of the concept of civil obedience. Finally, we will present the expressions "wholesome pills" and "captivity of understanding" as candidates for articulating principles capable of offering a synthesis about the nature of the relationship between reason and rhetoric, politics and religion in Hobbesian thought.