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Thomas Hobbes, the first great English political philosopher, has long had the reputation of being a pessimistic atheist, who saw human nature as inevitably evil and proposed a totalitarian state to subdue human failings. In this illuminating study, Richard Tuck re-evaluates Hobbes's philosophy and dispels these myths, revealing him to have been passionately concerned with the refutation of scepticism, and to have developed a theory of knowledge which rivalled that of Descartes in its importance.
Part I: Hobbes's lifeThe life of a humanist
The life of a philosopher
The life of a heretic
Part II: Hobbes's workScience
Ethics
Politics
Religion
Part III: Interpretations of HobbesHobbes as a modern natural law theorist
Hobbes as the demon of modernity
Hobbes as the social scientist
Hobbes as a moralist
Hobbes today
Conclusion
Description
Thomas Hobbes, the first great English political philosopher, has long had the reputation of being a pessimistic atheist, who saw human nature as inevitably evil and proposed a totalitarian state to subdue human failings. In this illuminating study, Richard Tuck re-evaluates Hobbes's philosophy and dispels these myths, revealing him to have been passionately concerned with the refutation of scepticism, and to have developed a theory of knowledge which rivalled that of Descartes in its importance.
