Submission and subjection in Leviathan
Subtitle: good subjects in the Hobbesian commonwealth
By: Michael Byron
Series: Palgrave pivot; Palgrave pivot
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 127
ISBN-13: 9781137535283
Subjects: Early works to 1800; Philosophy; Political science
Description: "In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes famously characterizes the state of nature as a predicament in which life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." The only means of escape from that dire condition is to found the commonwealth, with its notorious sovereign. Hobbes invests the sovereign with virtually absolute power over the poor subjects of the commonwealth, and that vast and unlimited sovereign has drawn the reader's eye for 350 years. Yet Hobbes has a great deal to say about subjects in a commonwealth as well, and he articulates a normative conception of a good subject. This book develops a novel interpretation of the role of submission in Leviathan, and it introduces the concept of subjection to explain the expectations Hobbes has for good subjects"--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-125) and index.
Table of contents: title: State of nature; title: Laws of nature; title: Obligation; title: Subjection; title: Sovereigns.