HOBBES ET LE POUVOIR

Power is the core of Hobbes' analytical device. He defines it as a actual capacity to obtain an apparent good in the future and analyses it, from a nominalist point of view, as power of a man on another man. For Hobbes, power's returns are increasing, the research of power has no other limits than death and if men accumulate powers, it is to try to get rid of their fear. They are many kinds of power, but the greatest is to constitute around oneself a coalition of powerfull men, an Union. But how? Hobbes questions the existence of a power market. However, if a man increases his power by buying the power of other men, he also strengthens it while submitting oneself to a powerfull man. So, we understand why men subject themselves: they win in terms of power.