Hobbes's On the Citizen: A Critical Guide

Description

This is the first book-length study in English of Thomas Hobbes's On the Citizen. It aims to show that On the Citizen is a valuable and distinctive philosophical work in its own right, and not merely a stepping-stone toward the more famous Leviathan. The volume comprises twelve original essays, written by leading Hobbes scholars, which explore the most important themes of the text: Hobbes's accounts of human nature, moral motivation, and political obligation; his theories of property, sovereignty, and the state; and, finally, his ideas on the relation between secular and ecclesiastical authority, and the politics behind his religious ideas. Taken together, the essays bring to light many distinctive aspects of Hobbes's thought that are often concealed by the prevailing focus on Leviathan, making for a richer and more nuanced picture of his moral, legal, and political philosophy.

Robin Douglass is Reader in Political Theory at King's College London. Johan Olsthoorn is Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation (FWO)-Flanders at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

'Douglass and Olsthoorn, and the authors they have brought together, have done Hobbes scholars a tremendous service with this excellent collection of essays focussed specifically on Hobbes's De Cive - not as a precursor to Leviathan, but on its own terms.' Arash Abizadeh, McGill University, Montreal