Nature, man and the political order- an exposition of Thomas Hobbes’s philosophy of man and the state

Abstract

This thesis is intended as a preparation for more advanced and sophisticated research. Its conception, therefore, is not particularly ambitious, and the furrow which I have ploughed has been ploughed very often before. My aim has been to present a straight forward account of Hobbes's social and political doctrines which is both complete and compact. Writing primarily as an historian of ideas, I have devoted much space to the strangely-neglected task of placing Hobbes in a broader historical and intellectual context. I have also paid particular attention to methodological considerations (an area in which there is apt to be great confusion) and to the systematic, organic character of Hobbes's overall philosophical enterprise. I have taken care to avoid the excessive reliance on the Leviathan which has often characterised previous approaches to Hobbes’s and I have tried to make intelligent use of insights arising from the extensive literature which has emerged around Hobbes during the past twenty-odd years. Given the canons dictated by limited scope and length, my purpose has inevitably been chiefly expository; but I have included as much critical material as has seemed necessary to a properly-balanced account.