The Bodily Foundations of Sovereignty: Hunger and Material Necessity in Hobbes’s Political Philosophy

Abstract

This essay argues that hunger functions as one of the primary passions driving political association in Thomas Hobbes’s materialist political philosophy. Despite the extensive scholarly focus on fear and the social contract, the pivotal role of bodily needs—particularly hunger—in shaping Hobbes’s entire political framework remains underexamined. By attending closely to hunger within Hobbes’s political thought, we can understand how his metaphysical materialism directly informed his political ideas, providing unique insights into the bodily basis of political legitimacy and prefiguring later materialist philosophies. The analysis critically engages with Samantha Frost’s materialist interpretation of Hobbes whilst also incorporating insights from Gregory Kavka and contemporary phenomenological approaches to embodied vulnerability. Through an examination of seventeenth-century English economic conditions, and drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological work, the essay demonstrates that, according to Hobbes, political legitimacy fundamentally depends on the sovereign’s ability to ensure not just survival, but also the material conditions that enable a “delightful living.” This bodily political theory reveals hunger to be more than just a mechanical need; it is also an experiential disruption to the perceptual and social foundations necessary for political community.