The Collected Political Works: Leviathan + De Cive (On the Citizen) + The Elements of Law + Behemoth, or The Long Parliament

Thomas Hobbes

Nov 2013 · e-artnow

About this eBook

This carefully crafted ebook: “The Collected Political Works: Leviathan + De Cive (On the Citizen) + The Elements of Law + Behemoth, or The Long Parliament ” contains 4 books in one volume and is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Collected Political Works, written by Thomas Hobbes, described his views on how humans could thrive in harmony while avoiding the perils and fear of societal conflict. His experience during a time of upheaval in England influenced his thoughts, which he captured in The Elements of Law , De Cive (On the Citizen), Behemoth, or The Long Parliament and his most famous work, Leviathan. Leviathan, published in 1651, concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and situations identified with a state of nature and the famous motto Bellum omnium contra omnes ("the war of all against all") could only be averted by strong central government. De Cive ('On the citizen') was Hobbes's first published book of political philosophy. The book was published originally in Latin from Paris in 1642. This work focuses more narrowly on the political and anticipates themes of the better-known Leviathan. The Elements of Law, which Hobbes circulated in 1640, is the first work in which Hobbes follows his typical systematic pattern of starting with the workings of the mind and language, and developing the discussion towards political matters. As his book seemed to support the King against the claims of Parliament, Hobbes began fearing for his welfare, and so, later that same year, departed for Paris, where he would remain in hiding for the next eleven years. Hobbes came into the orbit of Mersenne's circle once again and, for some of time, served as the mathematics tutor of a young, fugitive prince who would later become King Charles II. Behemoth (also known as The Long Parliament), completed around 1668 and not published until after Hobbe's death, represents the systematic application of this framework to the English Civil War. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), whose current reputation rests largely on his political philosophy, was a thinker with wide-ranging interests. In philosophy, he defended a range of materialist and empiricist views against Cartesian and Aristotelian alternatives. In physics, his work was influential on Leibniz, and led him into disputes with Boyle and the experimentalists of the early Royal Society. In history, he translated Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War into English, and later wrote his own history of the Long Parliament. In mathematics he was less successful, and is best remembered for his repeated unsuccessful attempts to square the circle. But despite that, Hobbes was a serious and prominent participant in the intellectual life of his time.