num_pages: 593
description: S. A. Lloyd proposes a radically distinct 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.
language: English
title: Leviathan
titlecomplete: Leviathan (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
genres: Classics, Law, History, Philosophy, School, 17th Century, Academic, Nonfiction, Political Science, Politics
ratings_count: 46066
publisher: Cambridge University Press