Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan is the greatest work of political philosophy in English and the first great work of philosophy in English. In addition, it presents the fundamentals of his beliefs about language, epistemology, and an extensive treatment of revealed religion and its relation to politics. Beginning with premises that were sometimes controversial, such as that every human action is caused by the agent's desire for his own good, Hobbes derived shocking conclusions, such as that the civil government enjoys absolute control over its citizens and that the sovereign has the right to determine which religion is to be practiced in a commonwealth. Hobbes's contemporaries recognized the power of the arguments in Leviathan and many of them wrote responses to it. Selections from books by John Bramhall, Robert Filmer, Edward Hyde, George Lawson, William Lucy, Samuel Pufendorf and Thomas Tenison are included in this edition.Leviathan is divided into four parts: In the first part, Of Man, Hobbes presents a view of human beings and of the natural world in general that is materialistic and mechanistic. In the second part, Of Commonwealth, he defends the theory of absolute sovereignty, the view that the government has all the political power and has the right to control any aspect of life. In the third part, Of a Christian Commonwealth, he critiques concepts like revelation, prophets, and miracles in such a way that it becomes doubtful whether they can be rationally justified. In the fourth part, Of the Kingdom of Darkness, he explains various ways in which priestly religion has corrupted religion and transgressed the rights of the sovereign.In this revised edition of Hobbes's classic work, A.P. Martinich improves Hobbes's punctuation for the sake of clarity. He has also added new notes for readers, extensive cross references, and substantial part of Hobbes's reply to Bramhall's The Catching of Leviathan.

"A scholar's edition at a student price!" --Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University

"The translation of Latin variants and the index of Biblical citations mark this off as by far the best edition of the Leviathan" --Thomas Pangle, University of Toronto

"Plainly the best edition of Leviathan. Superbly edited and indexed, with footnote passages from the Latin edition, a helpful glossary, biographical and autobiographical material, and a translation of Hobbes on the Nicene Creed, it will be an indispensable study tool. Curley’s introduction is masterly." --Jerome Schneewind, Johns Hopkins University

Thomas Hobbes; Edited by Edwin Curley

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780872201774
ISBN 10	0872201775
Title	Leviathan
Author	Thomas Hobbes
Series	Hackett Classics
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Hackett Publishing Co, Inc
Year published	1994-03-01
Number of pages	627
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.