Hobbes Today
Insights for the 21st Century

This volume demonstrates the enduring relevance of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes for the political and social problems we face today.

S. A. Lloyd (Edited by)

9780521169783, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 21 August 2014

358 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

"...In this volume, readers will find a Hobbes who had things to say about rights and equality, taxation, punishment, just war, and whether one has a right to fight for one's country. In other words, these essays, which are of a uniformly high caliber, seek to apply Hobbes's thought to contemporary issues.... This is an excellent anthology.... Highly recommended..."
–C.R. McCall, Elmira College, CHOICE

Hobbes Today: Insights for the 21st Century brings together an impressive group of political philosophers, legal theorists and political scientists to investigate the many ways in which the work of Thomas Hobbes, the famed seventeenth-century English philosopher, can illuminate the political and social problems we face today. Its essays demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Hobbes' political thought on such issues as justice, human rights, public reason, international warfare, punishment, fiscal policy and the design of positive law, among others. The volume's contributors include both Hobbes specialists and philosophers bringing their expertise to consideration of Hobbes' texts for the first time. This volume will stimulate renewed interest in Hobbes studies among a new generation of thinkers.

Editor's introduction S. A. Lloyd
Part I. Application to Problems of Governmental Powers and their Limits: 1. Supporting a normative order through Hobbesian reasoning Joshua Cohen
2. A note on Hobbesian lessons on bipartisanship David Braybrooke
3. Hobbes' theory of rights: a new application Eleanor Curran
4. Hobbesian legal reasoning and the problem of wicked laws Claire Finkelstein
5. Hobbesian equality Kinch Hoekstra
6. The representation of Hobbesian sovereignty: Leviathan as mythology Arash Abizadeh
Part II. Application to Civil Society and Domestic Institutions: 7. On public and private conscience: public reason and religious convictions in Leviathan G. F. Gaus
8. 'Thrown amongst many': Hobbes on taxation and fiscal policy Neil McArthur
9. The imperfect legitimacy of punishment Alice Ristroph
10. In harm's way: Hobbes on the duty to fight for one's country Susanne Sreedhar
11. Confronting jihad: a defect in the Hobbesian educational strategy Maryam Qudrat
Part III. Application to Problems of Global Scope: 12. Hobbesian realism in international relations: a reappraisal Chris Naticchia
12. Hobbesian assurance problems and global justice Aaron James
13. International relations, world government, and the ethics of war: a Hobbesian perspective S. A. Lloyd
14. Hobbesian defenses of orthodox just war theory Jeff McMahan
15. Hobbes and human rights Michael Green.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP]