Hobbes Today: Insights for the 21st Century

Description

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.

S. A. Lloyd is Professor of Philosophy, Law, and Political Science at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Cases in the Law of Nature (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Ideals as Interests in Hobbes's Leviathan (Cambridge University Press, 1992).

"The thought-provoking articles in Hobbes Today illustrate one of the reasons the history of philosophy is valuable. The book contains great philosophy. The distinguished contributors relate elements of Hobbes's views, sometimes via novel interpretations, to such pressing, political problems as rights, punishment, and even taxation." - Al Martinich, University of Texas at Austin "An excellent collection of papers by established thinkers and young scholars on the value of Hobbes's political thought for our world. Both students of Hobbes and contemporary political philosophers will find much of value in these essays." - Christopher Morris, University of Maryland "In this fine volume, the eminent Hobbes scholar S. A. Lloyd brings together an impressive set of essays that test received interpretations of Hobbes's work and that bring his thought to bear on some of the most pressing questions in contemporary political philosophy. The originality and ingenuity of the pieces collected here amply demonstrate the enduring greatness and perennial fruitfulness of Hobbes's thought. Anyone interested in Thomas Hobbes can read these essays with considerable profit, and the book will prove an essential supplement to courses on Hobbes's political theory." - Paul Weithman, University of Notre Dame "...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