The significance of Thomas’s Hobbes’s Leviathan
Quentin Skinner
This seminar will focus on rights and natural rights, the social contract, individual liberty, political obligation, representation and the idea of the state. These topics will be approached by way of a close reading of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, in particular those sections of the text in which these specific concepts are analysed. Contextual information about the historical circumstances in which Hobbes developed his theory will be provided in the opening session and in introductory remarks in later sessions. The aim of the seminar will be to arrive at an historical understanding of Hobbes’s political theory, and at the same time to assess his contribution to the understanding of each of the concepts discussed.