Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Ideals as Interests in Hobbes's Leviathan
  • Cited by 63
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
January 2010
Print publication year:
1992
Online ISBN:
9780511611971
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611971
Subjects:
History of Philosophy, Political Theory, Politics and International Relations, Philosophy
Information

Book description

S. A. Lloyd proposes a radically new interpretation of Hobbes's Leviathan that shows transcendent interests - interests that override the fear of death - to be crucial to both Hobbes's analysis of social disorder and his proposed remedy to it. Most previous commentators in the analytic philosophical tradition have argued that Hobbes thought that credible threats of physical force could be sufficient to deter people from political insurrection. Professor Lloyd convincingly shows that because Hobbes took the transcendence of religious and moral interests seriously, he never believed that mere physical force could ensure social order. Lloyd's interpretation demonstrates the ineliminability of that half of Leviathan devoted to religion, and attributes to Hobbes a much more plausible conception of human nature than the narrow psychological egoism traditionally attributed to Hobbes.

Reviews

"...refreshingly original...a brilliant reading of Hobbes, rigorously argued and tightly written. It deserves to revolutionize the study of Hobbes' political theory." International Studies in Philosophy

"For those who want to understand what Hobbes's political theory is, this will be the book to consult." Alan Donagan, California Institute of Technology

"The Hobbes scholarship is admirable, the writing is clear, and the quality of argument is uniformly high. Most importantly, Lloyd presents a genuinely original interpretation of Hobbes and meticulously constructs a very plausible argument in support of that interpretation." Greg Kavka, University of California, Irvine

"A rich and powerful book with an extremely intriguing thesis." Choice

"...this is a brilliant reading of Hobbes, rigorously argued and tightly written. It deserves to revolutionize the study of Hobbes' political theory." International Studies in Philosophy

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.