The Routledge Guidebook to Hobbes' Leviathan

389 Pages·2014·1.871 MB·English

by  Glen Newey

Routledge Guides to the Great Books
The Routledge Guidebook to
’
Hobbes Leviathan
Hobbes is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the
history of ideas and political thought, and his seminal text Leviathan is
widelyrecognisedasoneofthegreatestworksofpoliticalphilosophyever
written.
The Routledge Guidebook to Hobbes’ Leviathan introduces the major
themes in Hobbes’ great book and acts as a companion for reading this
keywork,examining:
(cid:1) Thecontext ofHobbes’workandthebackgroundtohiswriting
(cid:1) Each separate part of the text in relation to its goals, meanings and
impact
(cid:1) Thereception thebookhadwhen firstseenbytheworld
(cid:1) The relevance of Hobbes’ work to modern philosophy, its legacy and
influence.
With further reading included throughout, this text follows Hobbes’ origi-
nal workclosely,making itessential readingforall studentsofphilosophy
andpolitics,andallthosewishing togettogripswith thisclassicwork.
Glen Newey is Professor of Political Theory at the Université libre de
Bruxelles.
THE ROUTLEDGE GUIDES TO THE
GREAT BOOKS
Series editor Anthony Gottlieb
Available:
Galileo’sDialogueMauriceA.Finocchiaro
Aristotle’sNicomacheanEthicsGerardJ.Hughes
Hegel’sPhenomenologyofSpiritRobertStern
Locke’sEssayConcerningHumanUnderstandingE.J.Lowe
Wollstonecraft’sAVindicationoftheRightsofWomanSandrineBergès
Wittgenstein’sPhilosophicalInvestigationsMarieMcGinn
Heidegger’sBeingandTimeStephenMulhall
Plato’sRepublicNickolasPappas
Forthcoming:
Descartes’MeditationsonFirstPhilosophyGaryHatfield
DeBeauvoir’sTheSecondSexNancyBauer
Mill’sOnLibertyJonathanRiley
Routledge Guides to the Great Books
The Routledge Guidebook to
’
Hobbes Leviathan
Glen
Newey
!! Routledge
!!
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Firstpublished inthe RoutledgePhilosophyGuidebook seriesin2008
FirstpublishedinTheRoutledgeGuidestotheGreatBooksseriesin2014
byRoutledge
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Routledge isanimprint oftheTaylor&Francis Group,aninformabusiness
©2008, 2014GlenNewey
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Newey,Glen.
TheRoutledgeguidebook toHobbes’Leviathan /
Glen Newey.--1[edition].
pagescm. --(Routledgeguidestothegreatbooks)
Includes bibliographical referencesandindex.
1.Hobbes,Thomas, 1588-1679.Leviathan.2.Politicalscience--Early
worksto1800.3. Politicalscience--Philosophy.I.Title.
JC153.H659N492014
320.1--dc23
2013040156
ISBN:978-0-415-67131-6(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-67132-3 (pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-78115-0(ebk)
Typeset inGaramond
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
C
ONTENTS
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE vii
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
LIST OF FIGURES xi
Introduction 1
1 Hobbes’ life 12
2 Leviathan: the book 38
3 Human knowledge, reason
and ignorance 58
4 The state of nature: law and right 84
5 State of nature to commonwealth 114
6 Contract and consent 142
7 Sovereignty, state, commonwealth 172
8 Law, crime, punishment 204
vi CONTENTS
9 Religious liberty and toleration 231
10 Leviathan and international relations 259
11 Leviathan: early responses 284
Conclusion 334
BIBLIOGRAPHY 339
INDEX 354
S ’
ERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
‘Thepastisaforeigncountry’,wroteaBritishnovelist,L.P.Hartley:
‘they do things differently there.’ The greatest books in the canon
of the humanities and sciences can be foreign territory, too. This
series is a set of excursions written by expert guides who know
how to make such places become more familiar.
All the books covered in this series, however long ago they
werewritten,havemuchtosaytousnow,orhelptoexplaintheways
in which we have come to think about the world. Each volume is
designednotonlytodescribeasetofideas,andhowtheydeveloped,
but also to evaluate them. This requires what one might call a
bifocalapproach.Toengagefullywithanauthor,onehastopretend
thatheorsheisspeakingtous;buttounderstandatext’smeaning,
it is often necessary to remember its original audience, too. It is
all too easy to mistake the intentions of an old argument by
treating it as a contemporary one.
The Routledge Guides to the Great Books are aimed at students in
the broadest sense, not only those engaged in formal study. The
intended audience of the series is all those who want to understand
the books that have had the largest effects.
Anthony Gottlieb
Series editor Anthony Gottlieb is the author of
The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy
from the Greeks to the Renaissance.
P
REFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
This new edition of Hobbes and Leviathan differs from the first
edition of 2008 mainly in the addition of a new chapter, which
deals principally with the early reception of Leviathan (Chapter 11).
In addition, I have gone through the whole text and amended
passages,generallyinthenameofimprovinglucidityorreadability.
I have augmented the bibliography, and the further-reading sug-
gestions appended to each chapter, to take account of new schol-
arly work published in the interim. In one or two places I have
also modified substantive claims made in the first edition where
my views have evolved since the first edition came out. This is
particularly so in Chapter 7, on sovereignty. I have also corrected
some errors. I am grateful to Taylor & Francis for giving me the
time to prepare a new edition, and particularly for the editorial
advice and forbearance of Iram Satti.
September 2013
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writing of this book has taken an unconscionable amount of
time – far longer, embarrassingly enough, than the composition
of Leviathan itself – and I have incurred a number of debts.
My overriding debt is to Linda Holt. She read the entire
manuscript several times, an act far above and beyond the call of
marital duty. Her sharp critical eye spotted mistakes that had
escaped me, and her constant prodding to be clearer, while not
always welcomed at the time, has invariably proven justified on
closer reading. There can be very few academic writers who have
the daily benefit of advice from someone with such acute critical
intelligence and so strong an ability to empathise with the intel-
lectualcontentofanacademicbooksuchasthis.Moreimportantly,
hercompanionshipandengagementhaveprovidedconstantsupport
intheprocessofwritingit.Herinfluenceispresentoneverypage.
Severalotherpeoplealsoreadthebookindraftandmadevaluable
suggestions.Myformerdoctoralsupervisorandnowcolleague, John
Horton, corrected a number of infelicities and encouraged me to
clarify a number of passages that were unclear in the manuscript.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank him for many
professional and personal acts of kindness over a period now of over
twenty years.