Penguin Classics Leviathan: Amazon.ca: Thomas Hobbes, C Macpherson: Books

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"Anyone who works extensively on Hobbes's philosophy will find this a useful new edition of Leviathan." Ethics --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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The Leviathan is the vast unity of the State. But how are unity, peace and security to be attained? Hobbes' answer is sovereignty, but the resurgence of interest today in Leviathan is due less to its answers than its methods. Hobbes sees politics as a science capable of the same axiomatic approach as geometry: he argues from first principles to human nature to politics. This book's appeal to the twentieth century lies not just in its elevation of politics to a science, but in its overriding concern for peace.

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First Sentence
Concerning the Thoughts of man, I will consider them first Singly, and afterwards in Trayne, or dependance upon one another. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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4.1 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Leviathan: The Umbrella Against Fear, Jun 13 2002

By

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Penguin Classics Leviathan (Paperback)

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.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An essential piece, July 16 2001

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Matthew Jones (Port Hardy, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penguin Classics Leviathan (Paperback)

Hobbes Leviathan is an essential read. Firstly I admire Thomas Hobbes for his bravery during the 17th century when this book was written and secondly for his grim view of humanity. Atheism during the height of the Catholic Church was strictly taboo and he had to write this piece very cleverly. Leviathan is a must for those whom are interested in the philosophical ideology of who we are and what makes us strive for things that we do and generally what makes us as men tick.

This book is complex. The common "run-on" sentences used in philosophy and the Old English style makes the book difficult to understand at times. It almost seems to be pure thought with no organization which has been jotted down in 728 pages.

In all, I like to call Hobbes Leviathan the "Atheists Bible" (though perhaps Hobbes would not like this type of name for one of his works) and I truly believe that this work is just as essential and important to philosophy as Plato.

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5.0 out of 5 stars definitive edition of this work, Dec 4 1999

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Al Kihano (Iskandria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition (Paperback)

Leviathan is a the most exiting work of political philosophy I have ever read. You may disagree with it, but you should read it anyway and recognize its significance in the history of ideas.

This edition is a good one. Its pages are thin enough for ink to bleed through, but the text itself is definitive and its printing is based on editions from Hobbes' lifetime. Contrary to a prior reader review, this edition DOES have parts three and four, although rarely do those sections get read anymore (the interesting things are in one and two).

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Levelling the play field....
Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679) was born in England, a country that endured great political turmoil during his life. Read more

Published on Jan 10 2007 by M. B. Alcat

5.0 out of 5 stars Hobbes is a lot smarter than I am
I finished reading Leviathan a couple months ago, but cringed every time I thought about writing a review. Read more

Published on July 5 2004 by Ritesh Laud