Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes

Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes PDF

Author: Timothy Raylor

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0192565206

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Thomas Hobbes claimed to have founded the discipline of civil philosophy (political science). The claim did not go uncontested and in recent years the relationship of philosophical reasoning to rhetorical persuasion in Hobbes's work has become a significant area of discussion, as scholars attempt to align his disparaging remarks about rhetoric with his dazzling practice of it in works like Leviathan. The dominant view is that, having rejected an early commitment to humanism and with it rhetoric when he adopted the 'scientific' approach to philosophy in the late 1630s, Hobbes later came to re-embrace it as an essential aid to or part of philosophy. Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes proposes that Hobbes was, from first to last, dubious about the place of rhetoric in civil society, and came to see it as a pernicious presence within philosophy - a position from which he did not retreat. It offers a fresh and expanded picture of Hobbes's humanism by examining his years as a country house tutor; his teaching and his translation of Thucydides, the influence on him of Bacon, and the range of his early natural historical and philosophical interests. In demonstrating the distinctively Aristotelian character of his understanding of rhetoric, the book also revisits the new approach to philosophy Hobbes adopted at the end of the 1630s, clarifying the nature and scope of his concern about the contamination of philosophy and political life by the procedures of rhetorical argumentation.

The Rhetoric of Leviathan

The Rhetoric of Leviathan PDF

Author: David Johnston

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 069121932X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The description for this book, The Rhetoric of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Cultural Transformation, will be forthcoming.

From Humanism to Hobbes

From Humanism to Hobbes PDF

Author: Quentin Skinner

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1108622437

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The aim of this collection is to illustrate the pervasive influence of humanist rhetoric on early-modern literature and philosophy. The first half of the book focuses on the classical rules of judicial rhetoric. One chapter considers the place of these rules in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, while two others concentrate on the technique of rhetorical redescription, pointing to its use in Machiavelli's The Prince as well as in several of Shakespeare's plays, notably Coriolanus. The second half of the book examines the humanist background to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. A major new essay discusses his typically humanist preoccupation with the visual presentation of his political ideas, while other chapters explore the rhetorical sources of his theory of persons and personation, thereby offering new insights into his views about citizenship, political representation, rights and obligations and the concept of the state.

Rhetoric and Philosophy in Hobbes' Leviathan

Rhetoric and Philosophy in Hobbes' Leviathan PDF

Author: Raia Prokhovnik

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-31

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1000448916

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Originally published in 1991. This book explicitly examines rhetoric as the art of persuasion in the practical world, and as in the expression of thinking in the language a speaker uses. It presents Leviathan in terms of the philosophical character of the work considered through Hobbes’ use of language to express and organise his thought. Throughout, the nature of the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy is discussed and the problems of language in philosophical understanding. The book is concerned with Hobbes’ political philosophy and his views on figurative language, interest in literary theory and particularly his allegory. A special feature is the chapter on engraved title pages in Leviathan and other texts of the era.

Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Natural Philosophy

Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Natural Philosophy PDF

Author: Stephen J. Finn

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2004-06-04

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1847143318

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In 1625, Charles I inherited not only his father's crown, but also his desire to run the country without interference from Parliament. But many members of Parliament opposed the King on issues of taxation, religion and the royal prerogative. It was in this historical context that Hobbes presented a political philosophy that, at least in his opinion, achieved the status of a science, in a nation that was 'boiling hot with questions concerning the rights of dominion and the obedience due from subjects'. In this important new book, Stephen J. Finn argues that, contrary to the traditional interpretation, Hobbes's political views influence his theoretical and natural philosophy and not the other way about. Such an interpretation, it is argued, provides a better appreciation of Hobbes's writings, both philosophical and political.

Mortal Gods

Mortal Gods PDF

Author: Ted H. Miller

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-06-13

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0271056851

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

According to the commonly accepted view, Thomas Hobbes began his intellectual career as a humanist, but his discovery, in midlife, of the wonders of geometry initiated a critical transition from humanism to the scientific study of politics. In Mortal Gods, Ted Miller radically revises this view, arguing that Hobbes never ceased to be a humanist. While previous scholars have made the case for Hobbes as humanist by looking to his use of rhetoric, Miller rejects the humanism/mathematics dichotomy altogether and shows us the humanist face of Hobbes’s affinity for mathematical learning and practice. He thus reconnects Hobbes with the humanists who admired and cultivated mathematical learning—and with the material fruits of Great Britain’s mathematical practitioners. The result is a fundamental recasting of Hobbes’s project, a recontextualization of his thought within early modern humanist pedagogy and the court culture of the Stuart regimes. Mortal Gods stands as a new challenge to contemporary political theory and its settled narratives concerning politics, rationality, and violence.

Behemoth or The Long Parliament

Behemoth or The Long Parliament PDF

Author: Thomas Hobbes

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-12-10

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 022622984X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Behemoth, or The Long Parliament is essential to any reader interested in the historical context of the thought of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). In De Cive (1642) and Leviathan (1651), the great political philosopher had developed an analytical framework for discussing sedition, rebellion, and the breakdown of authority. Behemoth, completed around 1668 and not published until after Hobbe's death, represents the systematic application of this framework to the English Civil War. In his insightful and substantial Introduction, Stephen Holmes examines the major themes and implications of Behemoth in Hobbes's system of thought. Holmes notes that a fresh consideration of Behemoth dispels persistent misreadings of Hobbes, including the idea that man is motivated solely by a desire for self-preservation. Behemoth, which is cast as a series of dialogues between a teacher and his pupil, locates the principal cause of the Civil War less in economic interests than in the stubborn irrationality of key actors. It also shows more vividly than any of Hobbe's other works the importance of religion in his theories of human nature and behavior.

Leviathan

Leviathan PDF

Author: Thomas Hobbes

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-10-03

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 048612214X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures were in flux and open to interpretation, Leviathan played an essential role in the development of the modern world.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes