The Birth of the Leviathan. Heterodoxy and Daemonology in Western Political Thought

Abstract

In a recent publication, I tried to demonstrate the demonological origin of modernity linking the heterodoxy of magic with the rise of the modern concept of the ‘political’. The strange interconnection between sovereignty, witchcraft, and the political appeared to me as the hidden paradigm buried at the heart of our own political tradition. My theory was that the works of Jean Bodin and King James I, as well as the English legislation on magic enacted during the 17th century CE, became the subtle points of passage towards the demonological, and as such exotic and heterodox, origin of modern Western conceptions. In that article, I analyzed also to what extent King James was concerned about witchcraft, and at the same time how he developed a mystic of the royal prerogatives to the point of having jurisdiction even upon magic. According to this theory, the politicization of magic lies then at the threshold of modernity, producing a sovereign who can command and judge even the devils.