Reveals the Hobbesian origins of contemporary political concerns, especially the relationships between state, individual and law

Yves Charles Zarka shows you how Hobbes established the framework for modern political thought. Discover the origin of liberalism in the Hobbesian theory of negative liberty; that Hobbesian interest and contract are essential to contemporary discussions of the comportment of economic actors; and how state sovereignty returns anew in the form of the servility of the state.

At the same time, Zarka controversially argues against received readings claiming that Hobbes is a thinker of a state monopoly on legitimate violence.

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Contents

Translator’s Introduction

Foreword

1. Journey: To the Foundations of Modern Politics

Part I. Individual and State

2. Gracián’s Hero and Hobbes’s Antihero

3. The Hobbesian Idea of Political Philosophy

Part II. Language and Power

4. Theory of Language

5. The Semiology of Power

Part III. Fundamental Concepts of Politics

6. On War

7. On Law

8. On Property

9. On the State

10. On the Right to Punish

Part IV. Hobbes According to Two Contemporaries

11. Hobbes and Filmer: Regnum Patrimoniale and Regnum Institutivum

12. Hobbes and Pascal: Two Models of the Theory of Power

Conclusion: Hobbes’s Contribution

Bibliography