The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis (Phoenix Books) 1st Edition by Leo Strauss (PDF)

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In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that Hobbes’s ideas arose not from tradition or science but from his own deep knowledge and experience of human nature. Tracing the development of Hobbes’s moral doctrine from his early writings to his major work The Leviathan, Strauss explains contradictions in the body of Hobbes’s work and discovers startling connections between Hobbes and the thought of Plato, Thucydides, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From the Back Cover In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that Hobbes’s ideas arose not from tradition or science but from his own deep knowledge and experience of human nature. Tracing the development of Hobbes’s moral doctrine from his early writings to his major work, The Leviathan, Strauss explains contradictions in the body of Hobbes’s work and discovers startling connections between Hobbes and the thought of Plato, Thucydides, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel. About the Author Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in political science at the University of Chicago. Among his works published by the University of Chicago Press are Thoughts on Machiavelli, The City and Man, and Natural Right and History.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Writing a book on VIRTUECRATIC GLOBAL LEVIATHAN, I go systematically through recent writings on Hobbes. Inmany respects, on rereading this classical book by Strauss, I found it the most insightful of all.Professor Yehezkel DrorThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

⭐I read somewhere that Strauss carried this book in a water-tight container when he crossed the channel to England so that, even if the ship went down, his work would survive. However that may be, it is the rare opportunity to see Strauss genuinely struggle with a problem. The prevailing opinion, I am told, is that Hobbes’ science, or the discovery of Galileo’s analytic-synthetic method, was the origin of Hobbes political philosophy (the analysis of the prevailing order (state of nature), the synthesis or construction of a new order (Leviathan)). Strauss makes the convincing argument that not the scientific method, but instead Aristotelian humanism (in particular, the anthropology of the Rhetoric) was the “source” for Hobbes’ Staatslehre. Central to this is a critique of aristocratism, and the aristocratic valorization of courage. Not courage but cowardice and the fear of death is the ruling passion of the Hobbesian bourgeois (if Bloom learned anything from Strauss, it was that). In particular, Hobbes borrowed from the Rhetoric the treatment of anger, in which the most asocial human passion is the desire for revenge (and justice). Strauss later repudiated (in Natural Right) the argument against Hobbes scientism, but the point was made.

⭐I just want to note that quotations from Latin in this book are left untranslated so if you are not familiar with this language, a scholarly reading may require additonal work on your part.

⭐Neo Conservative philosopher Leo Strauss provides us with a detailed and readable account of the works of one of modern philosophers most influential thinkers. While certain aspects of Hobbes’s thinking, such as the superiority of monarchy, may hold little sway with todays elite, his analysis of human nature is as compelling as ever. Strauss provides not only an in depth explanation of this school of thought, but a detailed investigation into Hobbes’s inspirations. The only flaw is the frequent Latin quotations (which lack translations) which are of no bennefit to the majority of unclassically educated people.

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