Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book Liberty, Rationality, and Agency in Hobbes's Leviathan written by David van Mill and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2001-07-19 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marking a significant departure from most scholarship on Hobbes, this book offers new interpretations of his theories of freedom, agency, rationality, morality, psychology, and politics. Hobbes's arguments concerning many different aspects of civil society and human psychology are brought together to provide a comprehensive theory of agency. Hobbes's theory of freedom is demonstrated to be considerably more complicated than previously thought, revealing a concern with both "internal" and "external" conditions of action. On close examination Hobbes can be seen to move beyond his limited definition of negative liberty and to champion autonomous rational action. Throughout, the book evaluates the relevance of this reformulation for contemporary debates in political philosophy.