Table Of ContentHobbes and History
Although best known for political philosophy, much of Thomas Hobbes’s
work can be read as historical commentary, taking up questions in the phi-
losophy of history and the rhetorical possibilities of written history. Indeed,
Hobbes’s concern with history as a discipline was central, life-long and pro-
found. This book explores the relation of Hobbes’s work to history as a
branch of learning.
Written by leading Hobbes scholars from five countries, the book is
arranged into two sections. The first explores Hobbes’s view of the nature
of history, reconstructing his ideas from his uses of history as well as his
comments about its nature and method. The second part examines the
works of history written by Hobbes, from his first publication, a transla-
tion of Thucydides’s history of the Peloponnesian Wars, to his classic inter-
pretation of the English Civil War, Behemoth.
This book is an indispensable text for anybody with a scholarly interest
in the thoughts of Thomas Hobbes. It will also be of interest to those work-
ing in the disciplines of philosophy, politics, history and law.
G.A.J.Rogers is Professor of the History of Philosophy, Keele University.
He is the author of Leviathan: Contemporary Responses to the Political
Theory of Thomas Hobbes, and the founder editor of the British Journal
for the History of Philosophy.
Tom Sorell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex. He has
written widely in the history and historiography of philosophy, and in
moral theory and applied ethics. He is the author of Hobbes (Routledge,
1986).
Routledge studies in seventeenth-
century philosophy
The Soft Underbelly of Reason
The passions in the seventeenth century
Edited by Stephen Gaukroger
Descartes and Method
A search for a method in meditations
Daniel E.Flage and Clarence A.Bonnen
Descartes’ Natural Philosophy
Edited by Stephen Gaukroger, John Schuster and John Sutton
Hobbes and History
Edited by G.A.J.Rogers and Tom Sorell
The Philosophy of Robert Boyle
Peter R.Anstey
Hobbes and History
Edited by
G.A.J.Rogers and Tom Sorell
London and New York
First published 2000
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Editorial material and selection © 2000 G.A.J.Rogers and Tom Sorell
Individual chapters © 2000 the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN 0-203-46484-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-77308-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-22444-6 (Print Edition)
Contents
C ommon abbreviations vii
N otes on contributors v iii
I ntroduction
TOM SORELL x
PART I
Hobbes and history 1
1 H obbes’s concept of history
KARL SCHUHMANN 3
2 W hen Hobbes needed history
DEBORAH BAUMGOLD 24
3 H obbes and historiography: Why the future, he says,
does not exist
PATRICIA SPRINGBORG 43
4 H obbes, history and wisdom
G.A.J.ROGERS 72
5 H obbes’s uses of the history of philosophy
TOM SORELL 81
PART II
Hobbesian histories 96
6 H obbes and Tacitus
RICHARD TUCK 98
7 T he peace of silence: Thucydides and the English Civil War
JONATHAN SCOTT 111
vi HOBBES AND HISTORY
8 H obbes’s Behemoth
LUC BOROT 135
9 H obbes and sacred history
FRANCK LESSAY 146
10 H obbes, Selden, Erastianism, and the history of the Jews
JOHANN P.SOMMERVILLE 159
I ndex 18 8
Common abbreviations
EW The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, edited by Sir William
Molesworth (London: John Bohn, 1839–45) 11 volumes, reprinted
as The Collected Works of Thomas Hobbes, (12 volumes, with an
Introduction by G.A.J.Rogers (London and Bristol: Routledge/
Thoemmes Press, 1992).
LW Thomæ Hobbes, Opera Philosophica Omnia, 5 volumes, edited by
Sir William Molesworth (London: John Bohn, 1839–45) reprinted
with an Introduction by G.A.J.Rogers (Thoemmes Press: Bristol,
1999).
L Leviathan, London, 1651. Page numbers are usually given to this
first edition in subsequent editions and used in this volume unless
otherwise indicated.
C The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes, edited by Noel Malcolm
(The Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1994).
Contributors
G.A.J.Rogers is Professor of the History of Philosophy at Keele University
and the founder-editor of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
He is the author of Locke’s Enlightenment, has edited several books on
Hobbes and written many articles on the history of philosophy. He is cur-
rently editing works of John Locke and he and Karl Schuhmann are prepar-
ing a new diplomatic edition of Leviathan.
Tom Sorell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and the
author of Hobbes in the Routledge Arguments of the Philosophers series.
He has written several other books and many articles on seventeenth-
century philosophy and on other philosophical topics. He is currently work-
ing on issues in applied ethics and in the historiography of philosophy.
Deborah Baumgold is the author of Hobbes’s Political Theory and other
writings on early modern political thought. Following graduate training at
Princeton University, she taught at Oberlin College and the University of
Florida and is currently a member of the Department of Political Science at
the University of Oregon.
Luc Borot is Professor of Early Modern British Civilization, Université
Paul-Valery, Montpellier. He is a member of the Institut Universitaire de
France. He edited and translated the first French edition of Hobbes’s Behe-
moth and he is currently working on James Harrington, the news press of
the English Revolution and public opinion and on the concept of political
mentality.
Franck Lessay is Professor at the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle-
Paris III where he teaches in the Department of English Studies. His
research deals mostly with seventeenth-century English political thought,
with special stress on Hobbes, Locke and Filmer. His most recent book is
Le débat Locke-Filmer, and he has wide interests in the history of ideas
(political, legal, religious and scientific) in general.
Karl Schuhmann is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht
and has wide interests in the history of philosophy. He has edited works by
Husserl, including his correspondence, and Hobbes’s De corpore. Cur-
rently he is editing (with G.A.J.Rogers) a diplomatic edition of Leviathan.
CONTRIBUTORS ix
He is author of many papers on the history of philosophy and on Hobbes in
particular.
Jonathan Scott is University Lecturer and Tutor in History at Downing
College, Cambridge and is the college Librarian. He is the author of a two-
volume study of Algernon Sidney and his most recent book, England’s
Troubles sets English seventeenth-century political instability in a Euro-
pean context.
Johann P.Sommerville took his first and higher degree in Cambridge and
was a Fellow of St John’s College before moving to the United States where
he is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the
author of Politics and Ideology in England 1603–1640 and Thomas
Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context as well as of many papers on
seventeenth-century history.
Patricia Springborg is Professor in Political Theory in the Department of
Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. She is
the author of many books including The Problem of Human Needs, West-
ern Republicanism and the Oriental Prince. She has published many arti-
cles on political theory and she is currently editing the Latin poetry of
Thomas Hobbes.
Richard Tuck is now a professor in the Department of Government, Har-
vard University, after many years as a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.
He has written several books on intellectual history including Natural
Rights Theories and Philosophy and Government 1572–1651. He has
edited a standard edition of Leviathan and published widely on Hobbes.
Description:Although best known for political philosophy, much of Thomas Hobbes's work can be read as historical commentary, taking up questions in the philosophy of history and the rhetorical possibilities of written history. Indeed, Hobbes's concern with history as a discipline was central, life-long and prof
