Pierre Nicole on Political Authority, Recognition, and Self-Cultivation

Nicole shares with Hobbes not only the view that the state of nature is a war of all against all but also the view that there is a natural duty not to offend other’s feelings of self-worth. The latter view can be understood as a conception of recognition of other’s basic needs. Nicole uses this idea to defend the political conception of succession through birth: separating rank from merit avoids conflicts that would arise over injured feelings of self-worth. How persuasive is Nicole’s suggestion? His analysis of how hierarchies distort the imagination, both of the high-ranking and the lower-ranking, is highly relevant for this question. In various ways, distorted esteem for the qualities of the high-ranking turns out to be detrimental to the basic needs of both, the lower-ranking and the high-ranking. This motivates Nicole’s alternative conception of recognition as insight into shared human weaknesses. Accepting that we all share the same dispositions to errors and character faults requires self-cultivation in the sense of rethinking one’s attitudes toward oneself and others.