內容簡介
《利維坦》霍布斯
「利維坦」是記載於《舊約聖經》中的巨獸，霍布斯用以比喻擁有強大權力的國家。全書分為四個部分，「論人」、「論國家」、「論基督教國家」、「論黑暗王國」，探討了人的天性、社會的結構與具正當性的政府。
「論國家」為全書主體，霍布斯在其中論述了對於政府的理論，並提出了社會契約論，認為人為了保全自己的生命，會與社會訂下契約並交出自己的權力，從而組成「利維坦」，也就是國家。對西方政治哲學有著深遠的影響。
收錄完整文章，並將單字拼法及標點符號現代化，且附上詳細的注釋，經David Johnston編輯的版本，能讓現代讀者快速進入霍布斯的理論之中。
Carefully and faithfully edited by “one of our most astute commentators on Hobbes’s political theory” (Jeremy Waldron), the Norton Library edition of Leviathan features the complete text of the work, with spelling and punctuation thoughtfully modernized and archaic terms helpfully annotated throughout. An introduction by Kinch Hoekstra situates the work in its historical and intellectual context to prepare students for their first serious encounter with “the greatest single work of political thought in the English language” (John Rawls).
作者介紹
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was born in Malmesbury. Entering Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1603, he took his degree in 1608 and became tutor to the eldest son of Lord Cavendish of Hardwick, afterwards the Earl of Devonshire; his connection with this family was life-long. His first interest was in the classics, and his first published work a translation of Thucydides, in 1628. An interest in science and philosophy soon developed, heightened by extended travels in Europe in 1629-31 and 1634-37. This led to his great project of a political science. His first verson of this, The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, was privately circulated in 1640, when Parliament was hotly disputing the king's powers, and Hobbes fled to Paris, where he stayed for eleven years.
A second version, De Cive, was published in 1642, and the third, Leviathan—the crowning achievement of his political science—in 1651. It was so influential that it came under widespread attack and was in danger of condemnation by the House of Commons. Hobbes perforce lived quietly and published little more on political matters. At the age of eighty-four he composed an autobiography in Latin verse, and within the next three years translated the whole of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad.
David Johnston teaches political philosophy at Columbia University, where he has served as Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization and Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy. He is the author of A Brief History of Justice, The Idea of a Liberal Theory, and The Rhetoric of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation, and is the editor of a collection of readings entitled Equality and coeditor of Machiavelli on Liberty and Conflict.
