Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first great English political philosopher, and his book Leviathan was one of the first truly modern works of philosophy. Richard Tuck shows that while Hobbes may indeed have been an atheist, he was far from pessimistic about human nature, nor did he advocate totalitarianism. By locating him against the context of his age, we learn that Hobbes developed a theory of knowledge which rivaled that of Descartes in its importance for the formation of modern philosophy.

Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction

Tuck, Richard

Biographies & Memoirs

Oxford University Press

Great Political Thinkers contains introductions to four of the most influential political theorists in the Western tradition. Written by experts in the fields of history, philosophy, and political science, these concise yet authoritative essays examine the thought and works of Machiaveilli, whose name lives on today as a byword for duplicity; Hobbes, the first great English philosopher; Mill, a liberal thinker and champion of individual liberty; and Marx, whose theories have exerted the single most profound effect on twentieth century politics. Small masterpieces of compression and readability, these studies offer readers important insights into past masters whose ideas still affect the way we think today.

Great Political Thinkers : Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mill, Marx

Literature & Fiction

Singer, Peter

Skinner, Quentin

Thomas, William

Classics

Thomas Hobbes was the first great English political philosopher, and his book Leviathan was one of the first truly modern works of philosophy. He has long had the reputation of being a pessimistic atheist, who saw human nature as inevitably evil and proposed a totalitarian state to subdue human failings. In this study, Richard Tuck dispels these myths, revealing Hobbes to have been passionately concerned with the refutation of scepticism in both sciences and ethics, and to have developed a theory of knowledge which rivalled that of Descartes in its importance for the formation of modern philosophy.

Hobbes (Past Masters)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

This book is the first fully historical account of the formative period of modern theories of international law. It sets the scene with an extensive history of the theory of international relations from antiquity down to the seventeenth century. Professor Richard Tuck examines the arguments over the moral basis for war and international aggression, and links the debates to the writings of the great political theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.

The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant

History

World

This book is the first fully historical account of the formative period of modern theories of international law. It sets the scene with an extensive history of the theory of international relations from antiquity down to the seventeenth century. Professor Richard Tuck examines the arguments over the moral basis for war and international aggression, and links the debates to the writings of the great political theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.

Foreign & International Law

Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development

This book shows how political argument in terms of rights and natural rights began in medieval Europe, and how the theory of natural rights was developed in the seventeenth century after a period of neglect in the Renaissance. Dr Tuck provides a new understanding of the importance of Jean Gerson in the formation of the theories, and of Hugo Grotius in their development; he also restores the Englishman John Selden's ideas to the prominence they once enjoyed, and shows how Thomas Hobbes's political theory can best be understood against this background. In general, the book enables us to understand more fully the characteristics of the natural rights theories available to the men of the Enlightenment, and thereby to appreciate the complexity and equivocal nature of modern right theories.

Cambridge University Press

This major new contribution to our understanding of European political theory will challenge the perspectives in which political thought is understood. Framed as a general account of the period between 1572 and 1651 it charts the formation of a distinctively modern political vocabulary, based on arguments of political necessity and raison d'etat in the work of the major theorists. While Dr. Tuck pays detailed attention to Montaigne, Grotius, Hobbes and the theorists of the English Revolution, he also reconsiders the origins of their conceptual vocabulary in humanist thought--particularly skepticism and stoicism--and its development and appropriation during the revolutions in Holland and France. This book will be welcomed by all historians of political thought and those interested in the development of the idea of the state.

Philosophy and Government 1572–1651 (Ideas in Context, Series Number 26)

De Cive (On the Citizen) is the first full exposition of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher of all time. Professors Tuck and Silverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation since 1651, a rendition long thought (in error) to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself. On the Citizen is written in a clear, straightforward, expository style, offering students a more digestible account of Hobbes' political thought than even Leviathan itself. This new translation is itself a very significant scholarly event.

HOBBES ON THE CITIZEN (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tuck, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tuck, Richard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tuck, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction

Great Political Thinkers : Machiavelli, Hobbes, Mill, Marx

Hobbes (Past Masters)

The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant

The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant

Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development

Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development

Philosophy and Government 1572–1651 (Ideas in Context, Series Number 26)

HOBBES ON THE CITIZEN (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

Philosophy and Government 1572–1651 (Ideas in Context, Series Number 26)