Hobbes: On the Citizen

by Thomas Hobbes, Richard Tuck (Editor), Michael Silverthorne (Editor)

Overview

De Cive (On the Citizen) is the first full exposition of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher of all time. Professors Tuck and Silverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation since 1651, a rendition long thought (in error) to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself. On the Citizen is written in a clear, straightforward, expository style, offering students a more digestible account of Hobbes' political thought than even Leviathan itself. This new translation is itself a very significant scholarly event.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521437806
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/20/1998
Series:	Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.54(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Note on the translation; Key words; Principal events in Hobbes's life; Further reading; On the Citizen; Preface to the readers; 1. On the state of man without civil society; 2. On the natural law of contracts; 3. On the other laws of nature; 4. That the natural law is the divine law; 5. On the causes and generation of a commonwealth; 6. On the right of the Assembly of Man, who holds sovereign authority in the commonwealth; 7. On the three kinds of commonwealth; democracy, aristocracy and monarchy; 8. On the right of masters over slaves; 9. On the rights of parents over children, and on the Patrimonial Kingdom; 10. Comparison of the disadvantages of each of the three kinds of commonwealth; 11. Passages and examples from holy scripture about the right of kingship, which appear to support our account; 12. On the internal causes which tend to dissolve a commonwealth; 13. On the duties of those who exercise sovereign power; 14. On laws and sins; 15. On the kingdom of God by nature; 16. On the kingdom of God by the old agreement; 17. On the kingdom of God by the new agreement; 18. On what is necessary for entry into the Kingdom of heaven; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This new translation will thus be welcomed not only by Hobbes scholars, but by all readers interested in a compact and explicit statement of Hobbes's political ideas. This book, in sum, one would be happy to recommend, not only to a scholarly audience but to a more general readership. Silverthorne's translation...allows the full simplicity and power ofHobbes's political ideas come to life." Sixteenth Century Journal

"The present volume, in the excellent series Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, provodes a much better translation, along with a scholarly introduction and notes and a useful discussion of key terms in Hobbes's theory. It deserves a wide readership. In these days, when undergraduates increasingly find Leviathan too long and its languge too hard, there is an argument for assigning them this volume instead." Ethics

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