Psychology and Politics: Hobbes, Chrysippus the Stoic and the Passions

This article highlights the key role played by human psychology and the passions in Hobbes’s theoretical construction of politics as civil science. It analyses the connections with some stoic theories, in particular with the philosophy of Chrysippus. In fact, despite several differences, Hobbes was influenced by Stoic philosophy, especially with reference to the essential dynamics of the passions as “impulse” (hormé) and “repulsion” (aformé).