O PAPEL DA IMAGINAÇÃO NA FILOSOFIA POLÍTICA DE HOBBES

The objective of this paper is to examine the role of imagination in Hobbes’s political philosophy. We argue that Hobbes’s reflections on imagination lead him to distinguish between prudence and reason, which is a key distinction in his political philosophy. The institution of sovereignty consists precisely in overcoming the dimension of prudence by means of reason. Thus, Hobbes’s political philosophy involves the replacement of a sphere of power relations, the realm of imagination, with a sphere of law relations in the civil state, the realm of reason.