(Tom Bergin/Reuters)In a recent interview, President-elect Donald Trump dismissed doubts about whether his business interests would cloud his judgment about what’s good for the nation. Recent statements by Trump suggest he will transcend this problem by fusing his private interests and the public welfare. In embracing this idea, he shows a surprising and revealing affinity with a 16th-century thinker: self-made philosopher Thomas Hobbes. First, Hobbes himself recognized how hard it is to fuse private interests with the public good. For these reasons, Hobbes’s solution to the problem of aligning public and private interests is clearly not suited to American constitutional democracy or the new administration.

Source: Washington Post December 04, 2016 12:00 UTC