The sense of smell: Morality and rhetoric in the Bramhall-Hobbes controversy

Olfactoric imagery is abundantly employed in the Bramhall-Hobbes controversy. I survey some examples and then turn to the possible significance of this. I argue that by forcing Hobbes into the figurative exchange Bramhall scores points in terms of moving the controversy into ground that is not covered by the limited view of rationality that Hobbes is committed to according to his rhetoric (at least as Bramhall perceives it). Bramhall clearly wants to move from cool argument to a more affluent rhetorical appeal. I argue that choosing such a richer epistemology coheres with Bramhall’s deeper anxieties regarding the moral method used in the Leviathan. This essay thus deviates from other form-content analysis of Hobbes, in attempting to examine his rhetoric in practice, under the pressure of controversy. My more general concern is in relating seemingly formal polemical choices to moral concerns. A previous version of this paper was read before a meeting of a German-Israeli controversy research group (headed by M. Dascal and G. Fritz) dedicated to the study of early modern controversies (Giessen, 2000). I am indebted to participants of that meeting for excellent comments and suggestion. I would also like to acknowledge the way by which Dascal’s pioneering work on the philosophical and historical importance of studying controversies has inspired this particular essay.