The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis

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University of Chicago Press, 1963 - 172 pages
In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that Hobbes's ideas arose not from tradition or science but from his own deep knowledge and experience of human nature. Tracing the development of Hobbes's moral doctrine from his early writings to his major work The Leviathan, Strauss explains contradictions in the body of Hobbes's work and discovers startling connections between Hobbes and the thought of Plato, Thucydides, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel.
 

Contents

INTRODUCTION
2
THE MORAL BASIS
6
ARISTOTELIANISM
30
ARISTOCRATIC VIRTUE
44
THE STATE AND RELIGION
59
HISTORY
79
THE NEW MORALITY
108
THE NEW POLITICAL SCIENCE
129
INDEX
171
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About the author (1963)

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. From 1949 to 1968 he was professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, among them The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Natural Right and History, and Spinoza's Critique of Religion, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

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