TY - GEN

T1 - Thomas Hobbes and the Linguistic Construction of the International Political Space

AU - Gudalov, Nikolay

N1 - Gudalov, N. (2023). Thomas Hobbes and the Linguistic Construction of the International Political Space. In: , et al. Proceedings of Topical Issues in International Political Geography. TIPG 2021. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20620-7_16

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - THOMAS HOBBES

KW - International Relations

KW - Linguistic Turn

UR - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-20620-7#bibliographic-information

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9783031206221

T3 - Springer Geography

SP - 171

EP - 185

BT - Proceedings of Topical Issues in International Political Geography

PB - Springer Nature

CY - Cham

T2 - Topical Issues of International Political Geography<br/>

Y2 - 15 October 2021 through 16 October 2021

ER -