トマス・ホッブズの政治学にみる結婚と家族

抄録

In Thomas Hobbes′s political theory, a family is very similar to a commonwealth. First, they are both artificially formed. Second, their political system is patriarchy. According to his social contract theory, a commonwealth is founded on a contract of every man with every man. Thus, the nature of the commonwealth is artificial. The political system which Hobbes believes to be that of an ideal commonwealth is a monarchy. And a monarchy is generally called a patriarchy, the primary nature of which is paternal dominion. Since paternal dominion is the very basis of his theory of the family, it might be said that Hobbes parallels a family with a commonwealth. Then, how do men and women make a family in Hobbes′s political theory? And what is the condition to form the family? He describes his opinions of the marriage and the family in The Elements of Law(1640), De Cive(1642)and Leviathan(1651). Hobbes stands by the theory that men and women are equal in the faculties of body and mind, because he thinks that in the state of nature there is no difference of strength or prudence between both sexes. A man and a woman do agree to marry and a family is formed. By a contract of the man with the woman, a husband or a father has power over the family. The power is called paternal power. A family, in theory, comes into existence when the husband or the father has acquired paternal power. Therefore, that a patriarch has paternal power is the absolute condition to form a family. In conclusion, Hobbes′s patriarchal family made by a contract between man and woman could be, like Hobbers′s commonwealth, regarded as artificial. In addition, Hobbes would be the first to have considered a family to be artificial.