Abstract

In this paper we will analyze the problem of political obligation in Hobbes, understanding this as a moral compulsion to obey the laws, in opposition to a prudential calculus. Against the traditional interpretation regarding Hobbes as a consent theorist, we will affirm that it plays a secondary role to obligation and that this is apparently sustained in laws of nature as precepts of prudential reason, oriented to self-preservation. Starting from the analysis of his answer to the Fool, we will conclude that attempts to justify obligation give in to the use of coercion as the dominant strategy.