The New Leviathan Or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism

by Collingwood, R. G.; Boucher, David

• ISBN13: 9780198238805
• ISBN10: 0198238800
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-29
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

The New Leviathan, originally published in 1942, a few months before the author's death, is the book which R. G. Collingwood chose to write in preference to completing his life's work on the philosophy of history. It was occasioned by the Second World War and the threat which Nazism andFascism constituted to civlization. The book draws upon many years of work in moral and political philosophy and attempts to establish the multiple and complex connections between the levels of consciousness, society, civilization, and barbarism. Collingwood argues that traditional social contracttheory has failed to account for the continuing existence of the non-social community and its relation to the social community in the body politic. He is also critical of the tendency within ethics to confound right and duty. The publication of 120 pages of additional manuscript material in this revised edition demonstrates in more detail how Collingwood was determined to show that right and duty occupy different levels of rational practical consciousness. The additional writings also contain Collingwood's unequivocalrejection of relativism. David Boucher's introduction shows that The New Leviathan and The Idea of History are integrally related and that neither can be properly understood independently of the other. He is also concerned to show how many of Collingwood's ideas have a contemporary relevance, and that his ideas onbarbarism are not so unusual as they might at first appear. 'A strange and fascinating book . . . The publication of this handsome new edition of The New Leviathan . . . is a welcome event.' Political Studies 'In his respectful and informative introduction David Boucher shows how The New Leviathan and the additional material appended to it fit in with Collingwood's thought as a whole.' History of Political Thought 'Throughout, the Introduction displays Boucher's usual mastery of the material, serious and probing approach, and judicious appraisal.' Collingwood Studies

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Editor's Introduction	xiii
Preface to the First Edition	lix
The New Leviathan
PART I. MAN
Body and Mind	1	(7)
The Relation between Body and Mind	8	(6)
Body as Mind	14	(4)
Feeling	18	(9)
The Ambiguity of Feeling	27	(13)
Language	40	(7)
Appetite	47	(7)
Hunger and Love	54	(7)
Retrospect	61	(6)
Passion	67	(7)
Desire	74	(9)
Happiness	83	(7)
Choice	90	(9)
Reason	99	(5)
Utility	104	(7)
Right	111	(8)
Duty	119	(6)
Theoretical Reason	125	(5)
PART II. SOCIETY
Two Senses of the Word `Society'	130	(8)
Society and Community	138	(10)
Society as Joint Will	148	(12)
The Family as a Mixed Community	160	(5)
The Family as a Society	165	(12)
The Body Politic, Social and Non-Social	177	(7)
The Three Laws of Politics	184	(8)
Democracy and Aristocracy	192	(11)
Force in Politics	203	(9)
The Forms of Political Action	212	(13)
Eternal Politics	225	(8)
War as the Breakdown of Policy	233	(13)
Classical Physics and Classical Politics	246	(11)
Society and Nature in the Classical Politics	257	(11)
Decline of the Classical Politics	268	(12)
PART III. CIVILIZATION
What `Civilization' Means: Generically	280	(9)
What `Civilization' Means: Specifically	289	(10)
The Essence of Civilization	299	(9)
Civilization as Education	308	(10)
Civilization and Wealth	318	(8)
Law and Order	326	(7)
Peace and Plenty	333	(9)
PART IV. BARBARISM
What Barbarism Is	342	(9)
The First Barbarism: The Saracens	351	(8)
The Second Barbarism: The `Albigensian Heresy'	359	(7)
The Third Barbarism: The Turks	366	(9)
The Fourth Barbarism: The Germans	375	(16)
Appendix 1. Goodness, Rightness, Utility	391	(89)
Appendix 2. What `Civilization' Means	480	(33)
Index	513