A.P. Martinich - Böcker

The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes collects twenty-six newly commissioned, original chapters on the philosophy of the English thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Best known today for his important influence on political philosophy, Hobbes was in fact a wide and deep thinker on a diverse range of issues. The chapters included in this Oxford Handbook cover the full range of Hobbes's thought--his philosophy of logic and language; his view of physics and scientific method; his ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law; and his views of religion, history, and literature. Several of the chapters overlap in fruitful ways, so that the reader can see the richness and depth of Hobbes's thought from a variety of perspectives. The contributors are experts on Hobbes from many countries, whose home disciplines include philosophy, political science, history, and literature. A substantial introduction places Hobbes's work, and contemporary scholarship on Hobbes, in a broad context.

Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher, argued that human beings needed government in order to save their lives from being "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." They form governments by making a contract with each other to support a sovereign, to whom they give their right of governing themselves. In other words, government is artificial and not natural to human beings. Hobbes's arguments are formidable, but often unacceptable. For example, few people believe Hobbes's claim that the authority of their government is unlimited. Government needs to be limited in some way, such as a system of check and balances, to prevent tyranny. Identifying exactly where Hobbes went wrong is difficult, but also illuminates the truth about government.Hobbes's Political Philosophy: Interpretation and Interpretations aims to clarify Hobbes's positions by examining what Hobbes considered a science of politics, a set of timeless truths grounded in definitions. A.P. Martinich explains this science of politics, examining Hobbes's views on the laws of nature, authorization and representation, sovereignty by acquisition, and others. He argues that in addition to the timeless science, Hobbes had two timebound projects. The first was to eliminate the apparent conflict between the new science of Copernicus and Galileo and traditional Christian doctrine by distinguishing science from religion and understanding Christianity as essentially belief in the literal meaning of the Bible. The second was to show that Christianity is not politically destabilizing by appealing to biblical teachings such as "Servants, obey your masters," and "All authority comes from God."In examining Hobbes's views on political philosophy, Martinich gives a comprehensive overview of Hobbes's historical context and puts his arguments in dialogue with other interpretations of Hobbes's philosophy, drawing on the work of scholars such as Jeffrey Collins, Edwin Curley, John Deigh, and Quentin Skinner. This new interpretation of Hobbes's work will be of interest to philosophers interested in the history of philosophy as well as those interested in political philosophy, theology, and moral philosophy.

The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes collects twenty-six newly commissioned, original chapters on the philosophy of the English thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Best known today for his important influence on political philosophy, Hobbes was in fact a wide and deep thinker on a diverse range of issues. The chapters included in this Oxford Handbook cover the full range of Hobbes's thought--his philosophy of logic and language; his view of physics and scientific method; his ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law; and his views of religion, history, and literature. Several of the chapters overlap in fruitful ways, so that the reader can see the richness and depth of Hobbes's thought from a variety of perspectives. The contributors are experts on Hobbes from many countries, whose home disciplines include philosophy, political science, history, and literature. A substantial introduction places Hobbes's work, and contemporary scholarship on Hobbes, in a broad context.

What is meaning? How is linguistic communication possible? What is the nature of language? What is the relationship between language and the world? How do metaphors work? The Philosophy of Language, considered the essential text in its field, is an excellent introduction to such fundamental questions. This revised edition collects forty-eight of the most important articles in the field, making it the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the subject. Revised to address changing trends and contemporary developments, the sixth edition features eighteen new articles including influential work by Carl G. Hempel, Nathan Salmon, Saul Kripke, and others. Other selections include classic articles by such distinguished philosophers as J. L. Austin, John Stuart Mill, Hilary Putnam, Bertrand Russell, John R. Searle, and P. F. Strawson.The selections represent evolving and varying approaches to the philosophy of language, with many articles building upon earlier ones or critically discussing them. Eight sections cover the central issues: Names, Descriptions, Ascriptions, Communication, Truth, Analyticity, Indeterminacies, and Language. A general introduction and introductions to each section give students background to the issues and explain the connections between them. A list of suggested further reading follows each section.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first great English philosopher and one of the most important theorists of human nature and politics in the history of Western thought. This superlative introduction presents Hobbes' main doctrines and arguments, covering all of Hobbes' philosophy. A.P. Martinich begins with a helpful overview of Hobbes' life and work, setting his ideas against the political and scientific background of seventeenth-century England. He then introduces and assesses, in clear chapters, Hobbes' contributions to fundamental areas of philosophy: epistemology and metaphysics, in particular Hobbes' materialism and determinism and his relation to Descartesethics and political philosophy, concentrating on Hobbes' most famous work, Leviathan, and the theory of the social contract it advancesphilosophy of science, logic and language, considering Hobbes' theory of nominalism and his writing on rhetoric and the uses of language; religion, examining Hobbes' analyses of revelation, prophets and miracles. The final chapter considers the legacy of Hobbes' thought and his influence on contemporary philosophy.