Leviathan

by Thomas Hobbes

Book Overview

Backgrounds includes writings on Hobbes's life; selections from his responses to criticism of the book; and criticism and reactions to the work by Sir Robert Filmer, James Harrington, Bishop Bramhall, Edward Hyde (the earl of Clarendon), Gottfried Wilheim Leibniz, Montesquieu, and Henry Sedgwick.

Interpretations collects eight of the most important assessments of Hobbes and Leviathan written in the last forty years, including writings by...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393967980
• ISBN13: 9780393967982
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

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Mandatory Reading

And Let Darkness Descend Upon Us

Alright, Hobbes is not what you would call casual reading. If you like thick political philosophy, you may enjoy this though. Unlike most political works, you should not feel compelled to agree with everything Hobbes states, as it is quite a difficult sell. But he is very enjoyable, unless of coarse you are an eternal optimist or true-blue believer in democracy. Although vilified by most for his extreme view of an all powerful head of state governing over the cruel and devilish populace, Hobbes creates a senerio that I think most would agree with in some way or form. People, left to their own devices, will inherently murder and steal from each other to the point that civilized life becomes unbearable. It's quite a world picture that Hobbes presents, and quite fascinating as well. The idea I believe Hobbes asks each person to explore is fundamental--what is the true nature of the individual? His answer in short is chilling--the individual is not to be trusted! While we can ask that education and high moral fiber dictate the peoples actions, do we really want to rely on the goodness of our neighbors, or do we want to keep a steady eye on them while holding fast to our sword? While I find it hard to believe any person would call themselves a die-hard Hobbesian, I think most people will find themselves answering in agreement to much that he has to say. After all, even many of the founding fathers feared the impulses of the masses and sought refuge in a powerful central government to keep the monsters at bay. Here's a tip: keep short notes while you read. Don't get caught up in all the details, and you'll enjoy this book.

A Machiavel in reverse

Leviathan is one of the first books written after philosophy begun to detach itself from the Catholic inspired medieval thinking, also marking the beginning of the influence philosophy received from the scientific thinking, a point not suficiently y explored by Thomas Hobbes but which one we can get with the benefit of hindsight.Leviathan is an old Fenician word for a mythical crocodile, quoted in some verses of the biblical Book of Job, an taken by Thomas Hobbes as meaning the representation of a powerfull governor totally devoted to do his most to the benefit of the Commonwealth. In Hobbes mind the most efficient form of government was monarchy, but he takes a lot of time to analyse also Democracy and Aristocracy. One has to keep in mind that the time the book was written was one of internal revolt, a civil intestine strife in England, and the objective of Hobbes was to lay the foundations for human actions conducive to an equilibrium within the state, ending war. His book can be also be taken as one where many important aspects of Right and Laws are aprehended, from the perspective of a deeply religious anglican man, that tried his best to separate, in his words, the Kingdoms of men (where civil laws are imperative) from the Kingdom of God (Naturall Right). He does extensive analysis of God's Laws and its importance to the balance in the relationship between men.The edition is a very good one, with a good introduction and is a copy of the text as written in the 17th century, exhibiting an archaic English sometimes difficult to understand. Also, some quotations in Greek and in Latin are not translated, despite all the effort the author makes to turn them inteligible to the reader. The book could be understood as antipodal to Machiavellian's The Prince, because power is not taken here as something good in itself, but only as a means of carrying the security and hapinnes the kingdom subjects deserve.

Leviathan: The Umbrella Against Fear

To understand Hobbes' LEVIATHAN, the reader must first focus on 'fear.' His contemporaries were terrified of chaos and anarchy and would move heaven and earth to preserve the continuity of the state. Nowhere does he mention the word 'fear' but his real, if underlying purpose becomes clear enough as the reader plows through his dense tract that has as its purported goal to explain the origin of political institutions and to define their powers and proper limits. Hobbes sets up this thesis by first insisting that all of men's ideas originate from sense impressions, which take their cue from the external universe infringing on these sense organs. This emphasis on sense impression led Hobbes next to consider how the external universe manages this neat trick. Motion, according to Hobbes, is the key. Motion naturally leads man, for good or ill, to impact on other men. This impacting may be beneficial, as in man agreeing to help one another respect their respective rights, or it may be harmful, as in man being in a state or war. It was this fear that humanity might start to question the wisdom of the ruling nobility that caused Hobbes to write the longest defense of the royal right of kings ever written. Hobbes cleverly compared man to a wind-up clock: 'That great Leviathan is but an artificial man with an artificial soul.' As the reader follows this geometric logic, he is pressured to accept Hobbes' true premise: that it is better for the common man to put up with the occasional despot than to risk what he terms the horror of 'that condition which is called Warre, and such a warre as is of every man, against every man.'Even if that regime becomes so thuggish that its citizens wish to break it, Hobbes says 'No way.' If these citizens do break this covenant, then Hobbes warns that their lives will be 'solitary, nasty, brutish, and short.' Clearly Hobbes was a man of his times, one who was a paid shill of the crowned heads of Europe. Such a man today we would label as a fearful toady who desperately needs to maintain his own precarious hold on power. So why is LEVIATHAN still read today? Perhaps Hobbes points out the road that humanity might have once chosen to travel. We, like Robert Frost, have thankfully chosen the other less travelled by.