ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes's theory proves fruitful in thinking about our current debate over whether a public reason requirement is better conceived as requiring reasons that appeal to interests, values, or beliefs all parties share. Hobbes's political philosophy addresses the problem of ensuring a society's domestic stability. He analyzed that war was the result of people's embracing mistaken views, many religiously rooted, about the character and limits of governmental authority. He insists that we each have a moral duty to submit to the institutions we require others to submit to. One of the most controversial features of Hobbes's system is his insistence that sovereign authority should be neither divided nor limited. Hobbes concludes that none of the sources of religious knowledge his Christian audience take to be authoritative gives any reason for resisting any command the sovereign might issue as being contrary to their duty to God.
