Thomas Hobbes

If you want a concise anticipation of the America and the world we are entering mid twenty-first century, as the FBI is attacked by 18 year olds with AK-47s, try the following depiction by Thomas Hobbes from the seventeenth century: During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in war; and such a war, as is of every man, against every man. Whatsoever therefore is in a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than their own strength. In such condition, there is no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short [Leviathan 13.8-9]. In such circumstances we can follow former President Obama in another context, who said "good luck with that!" Or, we can study Hobbes, who tells us, in case we didn't know, that we are entering the state of war, but who then also tells us how we might avoid going all the way to the trenches and instead might reinstitute the peace of our republic. My book is about reading Hobbes. It is not however only a book about how to read him but an actual reading, showing such a thing can be done. Not an exhaustive reading, to be sure—far from it! Rather, it is a special study undertaken with a special view to what as pioneers in the recovery of our world and our lives we all need to learn from this great theoretical resource.