Hobbes grounded Leviathan on humans differing from bees in competing for honor
Evidence
For recent examples, see Parikka, Insect Media, in media theory; and DeLanda, New Philosophy, in social theory. The fascination goes far back in literature to Virgil’s bees simile in Book Four of the Georgics and to Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees. Note, however, that Thomas Hobbes based his political philosophy in Leviathan on insisting that human beings are not like bees and ants because they “are continually in competition for Honour and Dignity” (Leviathan, 225).
— Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 1105
Categorization
CANDY: Hobbes’s bee-vs-human distinction — honor competition — is a light, tweetable telling detail from Leviathan.
XREF: connects to: Hobbes identified religious fundamentalists and glory seekers as inherently anti-order groups — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 490