THOMAS HOBBES'UN POLİTİK DÜŞÜNCESİNDE SOSYAL DÜZEN FİKRİNİN İKİ KAYNAĞI: YAŞAM VE ÖLÜM (KORKUSU)

The most prominent contemporary interpretations of the political philosophy of Hobbes focus on the phenomenon of the manageability of death and life by questioning its pure legalistic and proceduralist character (social choice theory, contracting, etc.). Philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben have developed their own versions of the bio-political ontology of sovereignty, largely by reference to Hobbes' analysis in “Leviathan” and “De Cive”. The main aim of this article is to outline and compare two effective approaches to the Hobbesian conceptualization of state and society in the 20th century, one offered by Leo Strauss and another by C.B. Macpherson. Subsidiary aim of the presented reflection is to show that Leo Strauss and C.B. Macpherson provide more complex and sophisticated understanding of the relationship between power (governance) and life (and death) in Hobbes' political thought than the representatives of the “biopolitical-ontological” school.