The Platonian Leviathan

by Craig, Leon Harold

• ISBN13: 9781442641068
• ISBN10: 1442641061
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-30
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Thomas Hobbes's influential political treatise, Leviathan , was first published in 1651. Many scholars have since credited him with a mechanistic outlook towards human nature that established the basis of modern Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory. In The Platonian Leviathan , Leon Harold Craig weaves together philosophy, political science, and literature to offer a radical re-interpretation of Hobbes's most famous work.Though Craig begins and concludes his analysis with discussions of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and includes an essay on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness , the bulk of his two-part commentary centres on Leviathan . Part One shows the overt principles of Hobbes's political prescription to be untenable, and strongly suggests that Hobbes himself did not subscribe to these rules, using them only as tools to further his philosophical goals. In Part Two, Craig displays the underlying Platonism of Hobbes's thinking. Sure to be controversial, The Platonian Leviathan may nonetheless re-orient the future direction of Hobbes scholarship.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prelude	p. xiii
A Melvillian Overture: Moby-Dick and Philosophy	p. 3
The Problematical Leviathan: $$$	p. 25
Curiosity about Causes and the Problem of Religion	p. 29
Reality and the Problem of Materialism	p. 51
The Aristotelian Analysis of Cause	p. 63
The Human Psyche and the Problem of Chance	p. 71
The Causes of a Commonwealth	p. 79
Nature and the Problem of Teleology	p. 84
The Essentials of Baconian Science	p. 95
The Baconian Character of Hobbes's Political Project	p. 106
Philosophy and the Problem of Determinism	p. 114
Reason and the Problem of Revelation	p. 133
Rationality and the Problem of Reason	p. 145
Science and the Problem of Language	p. 169
Honour and the Problem of Natural Law	p. 198
Nobility and the Problem of Hedonism	p. 220
Justice and the Problem of Regimes	p. 246
Equity and the Problem of Egoism	p. 267
A Conradian Intermezzo: Variations on the State of Nature	p. 295
The Platonic Leviathan: 'A¿¿o¿ví¿	p. 327
The Crucial Paragraph: Platonic Intimations	p. 329
The Heartless Introduction: Hobbes's Disposable Physiology	p. 355
The Original State of Nature: Hobbes's Palaeoanthropology	p. 369
The Ever-Present State of Nature: Greeks versus Barbarians	p. 389
The Nature of Men: Equality as a Useful Lie	p. 418
The Place of Philosophy: The Kingship of Hobbes	p. 445
A Colossus of Irony: The Latent Platonism of Leviathan	p. 479
A Melvillian Coda: Moby-Dick as Fourfold Allegory	p. 499
Postlude	p. 525
Notes	p. 541
Bibliography	p. 675
Index of Names	p. 685
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