Subjection

Abstract

Submission is the last act we perform in the state of nature, and the one that constitutes us as subjects in a commonwealth. It is the act that creates our obligations to obey the laws of the commonwealth. In submitting, we also constitute someone as our sovereign. Submission is not, however, the last interesting political act we perform: once we are subjects, Hobbes thinks, we ought to subject ourselves to the sovereign. In particular, we ought to conform our value schemata to the one prescribed by the sovereign and embedded in the civil law. We do so by adopting a higher-order, value conforming desire. Good subjects not only comply with the law, but do so sincerely, having conformed their values as well. The same reasoning applies to both the subjects of the civil commonwealth and the subjects of God’s natural kingdom.