HISTORIOGRAPHY AS CRITIQUE OF IDEOLOGY: THE LEGACY OF HOBBES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

Our purpose is to analyse how Hobbes associates theoretical with historical inquiry, and how a reconstruction of Hobbes can solve some of the theoretical problems of today. To begin, in the first part, we analyse how Hobbes justifies his methodology of thinking both historically and theoretically. Then, in the second part, we analyse how this way of thinking allows Hobbes to develop his criticism of ideology and evolutionism, a decisive aspect of the importance of Hobbes in international relations. Finally, in the third part, we can verify how some contemporary theories fall prey to the same difficulties with which Hobbes struggled