Politics in the time of the Wolfman: An Arendtian reading of Hobbes' Social Contract

Despite the profound differences separating Arendt and Hobbes' political ideas, Arendt offers a surprising acknowledgement of the fundamental underlying agreement between the two: "Politics emerges from the in-between space and becomes a relation. This is how Hobbes understood it". How can we make sense of this apparent concurrence? What elements of Hobbes' political theory support Arendt's recognition and can be viewed through her concept of the political? From this starting point, the article proposes a reading of Hobbes' social contract in which the pact is interpreted as momentary appearance of arendtian political action.