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A Companion to Hobbes

Marcus P. Adams (Edited by), MP Adams (Author)

9781119634997, Wiley

Hardback, published 18 October 2021

544 pages
1 x 1 x 1 cm, 0.454 kg

"Hobbes has had many companions, and this collection is a welcome addition to their ranks. [...] the volume makes a significant contribution to the literature on Hobbes [...] shows that the supply of great scholarship in Hobbes studies has not run dry."— Hobbes Studies

Offers comprehensive treatment of Thomas Hobbes’s thought, providing readers with different ways of understanding Hobbes as a systematic philosopher  

As one of the founders of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes is best known for his ideas regarding the nature of legitimate government and the necessity of society submitting to the absolute authority of sovereign power. Yet Hobbes produced a wide range of writings, from translations of texts by Homer and Thucydides, to interpretations of Biblical books, to works devoted to geometry, optics, morality, and religion. Hobbes viewed himself as presenting a unified method for theoretical and practical science—an interconnected system of philosophy that provides many entry points into his thought. 

A Companion to Hobbes is an expertly curated collection of essays offering close textual engagement with the thought of Thomas Hobbes in his major works while probing his ideas regarding natural philosophy, mathematics, human nature, civil philosophy, religion, and more. The Companion discusses the ways in which scholars have tried to understand the unity and diversity of Hobbes’s philosophical system and examines the reception of the different parts of Hobbes’s philosophy by thinkers such as René Descartes, Margaret Cavendish, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Presenting a diversity of fresh perspectives by both emerging and established scholars, this volume:  

  • Provides a comprehensive treatment of Hobbes’s thought in his works, including Elements of Law, Elements of Philosophy, and Leviathan 
  • Explores the connecting points between Hobbes’ metaphysics, epistemology, mathematics, natural philosophy, morality, and civil philosophy 
  • Offers readers strategies for understanding how the parts of Hobbes’s philosophical system fit together 
  • Examines Hobbes’s philosophy of mathematics and his attempts to understand geometrical objects and definitions 
  • Considers Hobbes’s philosophy in contexts such as the natural state of humans, gender relations, and materialist worldviews 
  • Challenges conceptions of Hobbes’s moral theory and his views about the rights of sovereigns 

Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, A Companion to Hobbes is an invaluable resource for scholars and advanced students of Early modern thought, particularly those from disciplines such as History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Intellectual History, History of Politics, Political Theory, and English. 

Notes on Contributors viii

Introduction: The Presentation and Structure of Thomas Hobbes's Philosophy 1
Marcus P. Adams

Abbreviations for Citations to Hobbes's Works 20

Part I First Philosophy, Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy 23

1 Hobbes's Unified Method for Scientia 25
Helen Hattab

2 The Stoic Roots of Hobbes's Natural Philosophy and First Philosophy 45
Geoffrey Gorham

3 Hobbesian Mathematics and the Dispute with Wallis 57
Douglas Jesseph

4 Explanations in Hobbes's Optics and Natural Philosophy 75
Marcus P. Adams

Part II Human Nature and Morality 91

5 "A Most Useful Economy": Hobbes on Linguistic Meaning and Understanding 93
R. W. McIntyre

6 Hobbes’s Theory of the Good: Felicity by Anticipatory Pleasure 109
Arash Abizadeh

7 In search of "A Constant Civill Amity": Hobbes on Friendship and Sociability 125
Gabriella Slomp

8 Hobbes on Power and Gender Relations 139
Sandra Leonie Field

9 The State of Nature as a Continuum Concept 156
S. A. Lloyd

10 Hobbes's Minimalist Moral Theory 171
Michael J. Green

Part III Civil Philosophy 185

11 Hobbesian Persons and Representation 187
Mónica Brito Vieira

12 Hobbes's Account of Authorizing a Sovereign 203
Rosamond Rhodes

13 The Strength and Significance of Subjects' Rights in Leviathan 221
Eleanor Curran

14 Hobbes on Sovereignty and Its Strains 236
Tom Sorell

15 Hobbes on International Ethics 252
Johan Olsthoorn

Part IV Religion 269

16 Against Philosophical Darkness: A Political Conception of Enlightenment 271
Luc Foisneau

17 Hobbes on Submission to God 287
Michael Byron

18 Thomas Hobbes and the Christian Commonwealth 303
Jeffrey Collins

19 Hobbes and Toleration 318
Johann Sommerville

20 Hobbes, Rome's Enemy 332
Franck Lessay

21 Hobbes and the Papal Monarchy 348
Patricia Springborg

Part V Controversies and Reception 365

22 Body and Space in Hobbes and Descartes 367
Edward Slowik

23 Hobbes's Mechanical Philosophy and Its English Critics 381
John Henry

24 Cudworth as a Critic of Hobbes 398
Stewart Duncan

25 Cavendish and Hobbes on Causation 413
Marcy P. Lascano

26 Striving, Happiness, and the Good: Spinoza as Follower and Critic of Hobbes 431
Justin Steinberg

27 Hobbes and Astell on War and Peace 448
Jacqueline Broad

28 Hobbes and Hume on Human Nature: "Much of a Dispute of Words?" 463
Alexandra Chadwick

29 He Shows "Genius" and Is "More Useful than Pufendorf": Kant's Reception of Hobbes 478
Howard Williams

30 Catharine Macaulay and the Reception of Hobbes During the Eighteenth Century 492
Karen Green

Index 505

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]
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