For Hobbes, speech that corrects subjects one must govern is not abuse

Evidence

Language then, can escape the state of nature but, constituted as a remembrance of things past, can also deploy man’s enmity to man. This is not simply to be regretted, however, and there might be grounds to make justifiable use of the abuse, even the necessity to do so. This necessity is, in fact, essentially linked with the political and resonates with Hobbes’s views on crime and punishment-a matter of great consequence to the enemy. Here, Hobbes will say only that to “grieve an enemy” with one’s words is, indeed, an abuse of speech “unlesse,” he continues, “it be one [enemy] whom we are obliged to govern; and then it is not to grieve, but to correct and amend” (ch. 4, 26). — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 360 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hobbes promoted civility before the word civilization existed — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 48; Hobbes treated injurious words to an enemy as an abuse of speech — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 360; For Hobbes the enemy is not the other but the neighbor — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 372

Broader Connections

• Hobbes treated injurious words to an enemy as an abuse of speech #complicates (0.82) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 360