Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan: Editorial Introduction (Clarendon Edition Of The Works Of Thomas Hobbes) - Softcover

Review from previous edition Everything about these three volumes is testimony to Malcolm's extraordinary scholarly range and precision. Just as impressive is the lucidity of Malcolm's own prose ... Specialists will find fresh insights on almost every page ... Malcolm's measured and gently sceptical style is a perfect complement to Hobbe's own extravagant scepticism (David Runciman, Times Literary Supplement)

[Malcolm] fluently and authoritatively sets Leviathan and its author in their time and provides a keen and detailed study of Leviathan's genesis. Malcolm's volume itself is an enduring work of history. (Ben Schwartz, The Atlantic)

Malcolm's edition of Leviathan aims to present the masterpiece as faithfully as possible. The result―a product of many years of labour―is an astonishing achievement of the highest scholarship. We have never before had so accurate and so richly annotated a version of the text, and it is unlikely that there will ever be another that can match this edition. (John Gray, New Statesman)

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan is one of the most important philosophical texts in the English language, and one of the most influential works of political philosophy ever written. This Introduction accompanies the first critical edition based on a full study of the manuscript and printing history, and the first edition to place the English text side by side with Hobbes's later Latin version of it. The volume provides a path-breaking account of the work's context, sources, and textual history. Noel Malcolm's definitive work will set the study of Hobbes's masterwork on a new basis.
The English and Latin Texts (Volumes 2 and 3) are available together in paperback as a two-volume pack: ISBN 978-0-19-872396-7. This Editorial Introduction (Volume 1) is also available in a three-volume paperback pack, alongside the English and Latin Texts (Volumes 2 and 3), ISBN: 978-0-19-870908-4. The hardback three-volume set can also be purchased: ISBN 978-0-19-960262-9