Beyond the Enmity: The Mechanization of Nature and the Moderate Political Atheism

Dimitrijevic examines the political consequences of methodological naturalism, which presupposes the nonexistence of God’s will as the first principle of natural motion. Focusing on Hobbes’ application of mechanic interpretation of natural motion to the whole body politic and addressing a significant fragment of Plato’s Laws, the chapter draws attention to the fact that the atheistic peace, artificially produced by political art grounded in the mechanization of nature, does not mirror any idea of justice. Finally, Dimitrijevic searches for the way out of belligerent contraposition between convenience and justice by rethinking the concept of friendship and by making the tactical case for a moderate political atheism.