The high price of civil security

Hobbes is one of the very greatest political philosophers of all times, Noel Malcolm one of his most highly esteemed contemporary interpreters. Many have written on Hobbes, but few have had the wealth and depth of historical knowledge, the linguistic and bibliographical skills and, most significantly, the philosophical rigorousness which Malcolm deploys consistently in Aspects of Hobbes, a collection of 14 impressive, and often also delightful, scholarly papers.

Hobbes’s best known work Leviathan is a masterpiece of English prose. Well worth reading for that reason alone, it is especially important for those who are least inclined to agree with it. Hobbes thought that while some, indeed possibly most, individuals might well be benevolent, benevolence is not the foundation of states. Outside or prior to the advent of society men live in a state of conflict. This is so not so much because they are wicked, but because they each have a right to all things necessary to their self-preservation.