HOBBES,THOMAS ON DISCOURSE IN POLITICS

The salience of language in Hobbes's work has been recognized, but interpretations of his ideas on this subject have been remarkably discordant. The principal reason, this article argues, is that Hobbes is interpreted in the light of modern theories of meaning in language, whereas a coherent account can only be given by understanding the idea of signification current in the seventeenth century. The author contends that an appropriately contextual explication of signification shows not only that Hobbe's ideas on language are very nearly the reverse of those at work in most twentieth-century philosophy of language, but also sheds light on several important aspects of Hobbes's work.