IMAGENS DA POLÍTICA E POLÍTICA DAS IMAGENS: DUAS TÓPICAS SOBRE HOBBES E A IMAGINAÇÃO

The first part of this work starts with a passage of Machiavelli(The prince, chapters xv and xviii) to show that the defense of a certain“realism” in the constitution of political philosophy does not excludeimagination. The defense of the efective truth of things against the imaginedrepublics has as an effect the affirmation that politics cannot operatewithout images: either the politician or the political thinker should notdisregard the imagination. Therefore, the importance of an attentivelook on what is inherent to imagination: the ability to create images. Inthis sense, Hobbes appears as the heir of a tradition that unfolds in twothemes: his relation with the rhetorical tradition; the readers of Machiavelli.