Abstract
This chapter introduces Hobbes’s ideas about the internal pacification of commonwealths. It shows that, even though Hobbes provides a negative definition of peacetime and emphasises the need for state coercion, he envisions more than the absence of private violence. His point of departure is the existence of flourishing civil societies, and his political philosophy is aimed to make peace in these societies longer lasting and more secure. Hobbes is preoccupied with the danger of civil war, which threatens a return to the state of nature. As the chapter reveals, however, his political theory draws on the experience of peace within and between different kinds of human associations.
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Jaede, M. (2018). Peace and Society. In: Thomas Hobbes's Conception of Peace. International Political Theory. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76066-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76066-7_2
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