Customer Reviews

Hobbes (Past Masters)

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When I read British philosophy as an undergraduate, I skimmed over Hobbes and focused primarily on Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. It was not until recently that I realized the importance of Hobbes's political thought. Therefore, I decided to read Hobbes's "Leviathan." Having previously discovered the outstanding little books in the "Past Masters" series published by the Oxford University Press, I first looked to see if the series included a title on Hobbes, and I found Tuck's book, which I read before reading "Leviathan." Tuck's "Hobbes" provided me with a good foundation for reading "Leviathan," and Tuck greatly increased my appreciation for Hobbes. Tuck is particularly careful to describe not only Hobbes's political philosophy; he also provides an introduction to Hobbes's thought regarding religion, science, ethics, and philosophical method. By gaining an overall picture of Hobbes's thought, I came to appreciate Tuck's claim that "Hobbes created English-language philosophy." I recommend this book to anyone approaching Hobbes for the first time.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an extremely important English philosopher, best known for his political philosophy, especially as found in the work "Leviathan".

Richard Tuck's overview of Hobbes does an adequate job of summarizing the views of this important philosopher; however, the book at times feels a little bit too detail-oriented, often at the expense of forming a more clear picture of Hobbes's philosophy as a whole. One particularly confusing discussion involves Hobbes's ideas about the difference between a "natural right" and a "natural law".

The three main sections of the book focus on Hobbes's life, Hobbes's work, and later interpretations of Hobbes. Perhaps this last section is the most fascinating; we find, for example, Hobbes political theory in modern times being analyzed within the idiom of "game theory".

Tuck is clearly an expert and knows what he's talking about, but his book might be pitched just a bit over the head of a true beginner to the study of Hobbes or philosophy in general.

All in all this is a decent work - but it occasionally becomes over-academic at the expense of clarity... and in a work of this sort, clarity is a priceless asset.

The author starts by telling us "Hobbes created English-language philosophy". Really? What of Francis Bacon, to whom Hobbes once acted as amanuensis? Poor Bacon does get a brief, grudging mention later on. The description in the blurb of Hobbes as "the first great English political philosopher" is probably more accurate. Certainly he is important, in a broad Western context. He was central to the transition from medieval to modern thought, and was a strong influence on Rousseau and others. Tuck is an expert guide (despite his inexplicable slighting of Bacon) and his style is very readable. This introduction covers Hobbes's life, works and intellectual legacy. Reliable and informative, it is highly recommended as an introduction to, and summary of, Hobbes's ideas, but to better appreciate the context, you might want to read (dare I say it?) Bacon's Essays first.

At their best, the VSI series is arguably the greatest series of introductory volumes on different thinkers and subjects currently being published. Part of it is that many of the volumes are republications of volumes in earlier series by Oxford, the Past Masters and Present Masters series.
Tuck's volume on Hobbes is one of those republications. One can easily see why the VSI series editors felt no need to seek out a new publication on Hobbes. Tuck's book is outstanding in content and organization. That organization is very simple. A chapter on Hobbes life and his relationship with his contemporaries and with some earlier thinkers highlights Hobbes relationship to Montaigne, Machiavelli, Descartes and Grotius.
The second chapter on Hobbes' theories is a masterpiece of compression. In 55 well-written pages, Tuck ties together the whole of Hobbes' writings into a coherent argument.
The third chapter is a history of reaction to Hobbes by other thinkers. I like this chapter unlike one of the reviewers below. Tuck guides us through the reaction of Hume, Kant, the Utilitarians, Toennis, Leo Strauss, C.B. Macpherson, Cassirer, Oakeshott, Quentin Skinner and some lesser lights.
As always with the VSI series there is a guide to further reading, a good index, their outstanding format and reasonable price. There may be better books on Hobbes. One of the reviewers below mentions a book by Johann Sommerville. Unfortunately it sells on Amazon for over $50. So my recommendation is read Tuck, read Leviathan and then seek out Sommerville in a library. That's my plan.

I was able to read this entire little book in much less than a day. Especially interesting was the first section, "Hobbes' Life", which described the relationships between philosophers of that time, both between each other and society. The section on Hobbes' philosophy was also well done, and very informitive. The section on interpretations of Hobbes' didn't seem to have a point. It covered the fine distinctions modern scholars are making, which is well outside the scope of a book introducing someone to Hobbes. As this section can simply be skipped it didn't take away from the book, despite it's questionable value.