Sulle logiche circolari nel Leviatano. Patti e legge naturale

Abstract

This paper analyses the circular structure inherent in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, focusing on two key aspects: the relation between covenant and sovereign power and the interplay between natural and civil law. Hobbes constructs the social contract as the foundation of political obligation, yet this contract appears to presuppose the very power it is meant to create. Similarly, natural law is said to be obligatory, but its force seems to derive from civil law, which in turn depends on natural law for its legitimacy. By examining these dynamics through a legal-philosophical lens, this article argues that Hobbes’s juridical framework operates within an unavoidable paradox: the necessity of an initial coercive power to ensure the validity of a contract that precedes it.