Hobbes' Individualistic Analysis of the Family
| Author | John Zvesper |
| Date | 01 October 1985 |
| Published date | 01 October 1985 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.1985.tb00111.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
28.
Sue
Easton
the significant factors in transforming women into 'legitimate'
objects
of
violence. Jealousy and possessiveness as well as a
perceived inadequate performance
of
domestic tasks were predominant
precipitating causes
of
abuse in the cases they examined.
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HOBBES'
INDIVIDUALISTIC ANALYSIS OFTHE FAMILY
John
Zvesper
In order to understand human nature and natural rights, liberal political
thinkers have abstracted from people as they exist, as members of particular
societies,with particular identities, differences, relations, and obligations,
and have tried to imagine the essential human being, who
is
not only class-
less and raceless but also
-
even more paradoxically
-
sexless, free
of
family and ethnic ties, parentless and childless. Lacking the support
available from these relations, humans are imagined to live
as
Thomas Hobbes
describes them in the state of nature, 'without other security, than what
their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall'
(Leviathan, Chapter 13). This individualism is easy to criticise, and both
conservative and radical critics
of
liberalism generally scorn such abstract
thinking. However, feminist critics
of
early liberalism have usually found not too
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