17th Century British History - General & Miscellaneous, Political Science - History, Social Scientists - Biography, General & Miscellaneous British Philosophy, Philosophers - Biography, 17th Century British History - Commonwealth & Protectorate

Hobbes

Name: Hobbes
Author: Robin Bunce
ISBN: 9780826429797

by Robin Bunce, John Meadowcroft

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Overview

In this volume, Dr Bunce (University of Cambridge) introduces Hobbes' ambitious philosophical project to discover the principles that govern the social world. If Hobbes' immodest assessment that he successfully attained this goal may be disputed, Bunce nevertheless captures the extraordinary enduring value of Hobbes' work for the contemporary reader. Thomas Hobbes's name and the title of his most famous work, Leviathan, have come to be synonymous with the idea that the natural state of humankind is ‘nasty, brutish, and short' and only the intervention of a munificent overlord may spare men and women from this unenviable fate by imposing order where there would otherwise be chaos. The problem that Hobbes formulated resonates through the centuries as the enduring dilemma of political organisation and social cooperation. Indeed it can be seen today in fields as diverse as theoretical game theory and international relations.

About the Author, Robin Bunce

Dr Bunce completed a PhD on Hobbes' thought and teaches at the University of Cambridge, UK

Dr Meadowcroft is Lecturer in Public Policy at King's College London and the author of The Ethics of the Market (Palgrave, 2005) and co-author of Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2007).