Neither King Lear, William Shakespeare’s 17th century tragedy, or Thomas Hobbes’ 1651 book Leviathan are works which immediately call to one’s mind the other. The former is a plot-and-character-driven whirlwind of betrayal, loss, and emotion, while the latter is designed after a geometric proof, logically developing a philosophical argument. Despite the outward differences, the two texts share a crucial characteristic – they are focused on the examination of humanity. Leviathan established Hobbes’ social contract theory, which has become a fundamental component of Western political philosophy. This theory maintains that, in a functional society, “the people have made a contract with their ruler which determines their relations with him. They
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Hobbes notes that “True and False are attributes of Speech, not of Things,” further elaborating that “truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our affirmations” (105). In other words, Hobbes declares that truth and falsehood exist solely in speech, and are defined by either correct or incorrect use and order of word definitions, respectively. If one misuses or misplaces proper definitions of words in speech, Hobbes warns, “[one] will find [one]selfe entangled in words, as a bird in lime-twiggs; the more he struggles, the more belimed.” One must speak wisely and carefully if one wishes to deliver a clear …show more content…
Lear demands affirmations of his daughters’ love, to which Goneril and Regan respond with poetic exclamations of unrivaled love. Cordelia, apparently the most honest of the three sisters, decides that her words cannot express the love she holds for her father with any greater panache than her sisters’, especially given that half her love must go to her husband. She thus responds to Lear’s command with “Nothing,” deeming her feelings on the matter “true” (1.1.96,119). By Hobbes’ philosophy, Cordelia actually spoke a falsehood in that “nothing” signifies the phonation of no words at all; in principle, she used the incorrect definition of the word by even speaking it in that context. This technicality did not prevent Lear, however, from declaring “Thy truth, then, be thy dower,” and disowning Cordelia (1.1.120). Hobbes’ warning manifested as Cordelia’s false words left her in a sorry state. A conflict with this reasoning exists in that Goneril and Regan also spoke falsehoods in their professions of love, yet neither found themselves entangled by their words. Perhaps this suggests, as an adjunct to Hobbes’ philosophy on truth and falsehood, that consequences of falsity are not guaranteed but depend on the ability of those to which one is speaking to recognize the falsity and confront the speaker. Or, perhaps one
Hobbes notes that “True and False are attributes of Speech, not of Things,” further elaborating that “truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our affirmations” (105). In other words, Hobbes declares that truth and falsehood exist solely in speech, and are defined by either correct or incorrect use and order of word definitions, respectively. If one misuses or misplaces proper definitions of words in speech, Hobbes warns, “[one] will find [one]selfe entangled in words, as a bird in lime-twiggs; the more he struggles, the more belimed.” One must speak wisely and carefully if one wishes to deliver a clear …show more content…
Lear demands affirmations of his daughters’ love, to which Goneril and Regan respond with poetic exclamations of unrivaled love. Cordelia, apparently the most honest of the three sisters, decides that her words cannot express the love she holds for her father with any greater panache than her sisters’, especially given that half her love must go to her husband. She thus responds to Lear’s command with “Nothing,” deeming her feelings on the matter “true” (1.1.96,119). By Hobbes’ philosophy, Cordelia actually spoke a falsehood in that “nothing” signifies the phonation of no words at all; in principle, she used the incorrect definition of the word by even speaking it in that context. This technicality did not prevent Lear, however, from declaring “Thy truth, then, be thy dower,” and disowning Cordelia (1.1.120). Hobbes’ warning manifested as Cordelia’s false words left her in a sorry state. A conflict with this reasoning exists in that Goneril and Regan also spoke falsehoods in their professions of love, yet neither found themselves entangled by their words. Perhaps this suggests, as an adjunct to Hobbes’ philosophy on truth and falsehood, that consequences of falsity are not guaranteed but depend on the ability of those to which one is speaking to recognize the falsity and confront the speaker. Or, perhaps one