SOURCE: “The Role of Freedom and Pleasure in the State and Society,” in Gassendi's Ethics: Freedom in a Mechanistic Universe, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 142-67.

In this excerpt, Sarasohn discusses the progress from Gassendi's idea of natural man to his construction of the social contracts that buttress a system of government. Frequently contrasting Gassendi's “Ethics” with the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, the critic emphasizes the importance to Gassendi of free will and the primary human drive for pleasure—tempered by prudence—in his notion of a just and moral society.

Gassendi's Political Philosophy and Its Context

Human beings pursue what is pleasurable and conducive to life, and flee from what is painful and detrimental to life. Gassendi and Hobbes agreed on this fundamental human imperative—although Gassendi emphasized pleasure as the primary end, while Hobbes thought that the desire for self-preservation initiated human motion. Whatever the teleological...