Seminar 3.

Hobbes: The sovereignty of the secular state

(i) Texts

T. Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) (ed. C.B. Macpherson), Harmondsworth: Pen~uin, 1968.

T. Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) (ed. R. Tuck), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991,

(ii) Commentaries/full-length studies

D. Baumford, Hobbes's Political Theory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

KC. Brown (ed.), Hobbes Studies, Oxford, Blackwell, 1965.
M. Cranston and R.S. Peters (eds), Hobbes and Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays, Ne'A
York, Anchor Books, 1972.
J. Hampton, Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1986.
C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Oxford, Oxford University
Press, 1962.
A.P. Martinich, Thomas Hobbes, London, Macmillan, 1997.
M. Oakeshott, Hobbes on Civil Association, Oxford, Blackwell, 1975.
R.S. Peters, Hobbes, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1967.
D.D. Raphael, Hobbes: Morals and Politics, London, Allen and Unwin, 1977.
T. Sorell, Hobbes, London, Routledge, 1991.
R. Tuck, Hobbes: a Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.
H. Warrender, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: His Theory of Obligation, 2nd edn, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 2000 (first published 1957).
J.W.N. Watkins, Hobbes's System of Ideas, 2nd edn, London, Hutchinson University Library,
1973.

(iii) Useful chapters on Hobbes

D. Germino, Machiavelli to Marx, Ch. 4.

I Hampsher-Monk, A History of Modern Political Thought, Ch. 1.
D. Muschamp (ed.), Political Thinkers, Ch. 6.
J. Plamenatz, Man and Society, Vol.1, Ch. 4.
B. Redhead, Plato to Noto, Ch.7.
G. Sabine and T.L. Thorson, A History of Political Theory, Ch. 24.
D. Thomson (ed.), Political Ideas, Ch. 4.
G. Williams, Political Theory in Retrospect, Ch. 5.

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points of debate and controversy

1. Is Hobbes's
. . . concept·ion o f h uman nature - 'man as a wild and selfish
. beast, - over \Y
pess1m1st1c?

2· What would life be like in a 'state of nature'? Is Hobbes's description of \ife in the
state of nature plausible?

3. Is a st rong state required to protect the rights of individuals? Does Hobbes advocate
a state that is excessively authoritarian?

4. To what extent is Hobbes's theory of sovereignty logically sound but po\itica\\y

unacceptable?

5. Are the powers of the Hobbesian sovereign any different from those enjoyed by
contemporary parliaments?