Leviathan (Penguin Classics)

At times exceedingly dry, but not infrequently astonishingly witty, clever, thought provoking, rich in wisdom and astute, convincing perspectives on a vast variety of topics. If you have ever combed through and strove to grasp and apply statutes, the experience here is not dissimilar, and while challenging may prove immensely valuable where interests or circumstances incline you towards examining minutia factoring into a field of inquiry. Not every chapter or section will be of interest or use to every reader, but it's guaranteed there are informative portions within which can benefit every reader to engage with, which may prove highly relevant and constructive for your personal answering of questions moral, spiritual, social, political, scientific, existential. Quite an impressive opus, and much less nihilistic than I'd been expecting, in fact the rather egalitarian and subversive undertones, overt condemning of warfare and oligarchy, may well explain why this important work is less widely assigned or elevated into the prerequisite canon in the eyes of our indoctrinating state and private forces of this despicable day.

You can't go wrong with a Penguin book.

It’s the Leviathan. Good for price, I like Penguin Classics. You’ll get what you expect, if what you expect is pretty good. 10/10 would recommend reading for government enthusiasts.

Very interesting perspective on politics.

Very informative. I like the author.

This is a review of this particular product, not the book itself. I am very pleased with this paperback edition. The binding is of great quality. The book is nice and supple, it flops right open on the table and stays without wanting to snap closed. You can curl it back and under as to hold it in one hand, yet when you close it it stays shut and does not hold the bend. Very comfortable to read. Also, I'm not sure if this feature is common to many editions, but I find the annotations very useful to keep track of what exactly is being said.

The writing was captivating The characters were believable and I cared about them The plot had so many twists and turns I couldn't put the book down.

Great edition! Used it for my Religion and Politics Course at my University.

One of the most significant treatises of the Enlightenment, and therefore, of modernity and the world we live in today. I see a lot of negative reviews of the text, mainly people are articulately their opinions as 'disagreeing' with his social contract, with his view of natural man and absolute monarchy. This, may be the case from a 21st Century, 'Western' perspective. But you need to, you HAVE to consider this work in greater context and detail before you submit your final verdict. If you consider the context in which Hobbes wrote, it immediately justifies the excruciating detail and length he delves to in order to supplant his message in the reader's mind. He was a pacifist. He had just beared witness to one of the most bloody periods in human existence. This shaped the opinion of man to strive for peace and prosperity. He, most definitely against his better desire, saw brutality in man - it was all he was ever exposed to... More than anything, Hobbes was inveighing against the prevailing Christian values that dominated at the time. Hobbes took to great measure as to cover his back from the Church and the State. In this period - if there is even the slightest hint of subversion to Christianity, I think we all know what comes next for the author. An Exoteric, who outwardly veils a secret teaching of some sort, identifies in this message a plea to the end of violence. A hope, however unfounded this is. Hobbes exposed his radical beliefs to the world with the intention of making change, and that is EXACTLY what he did. He inspired a lot of change, and frankly shaped the enlightenment period on par with thinkers like Machiavelli, Rousseau and Locke. We need to think of Hobbes as providing as with a model of authority, dominance and legitimacy to further refine our beliefs of political theory as a whole. Hobbes walked so we could run. Without Leviathan, we could not have had all that came after it. He gave us the roots of modern society and government to enable us to live with the peacefulness he had envisioned. It's upsetting to see a contemporary audience strip away the contextualism of a great work, to instead superimpose their own beliefs against a completely different period and set of ideas. Give this book the time to weigh itself against other works around the time. Look at it in context. Look at its importance on modern society. This is a truly special work and one of the most consequential in history.

A good and useful edition, with a very interesting introduction. It may be worth noting that, even if Hobbes is studied for his political doctrine that can be found summarized everywhere, the main part of the book examines the Bible (OT and NT) and the history of Christianity. It does so from a plain, blunt, laic, bold historic perspective that surely was not common in the 17th century, as he himself stressed in fact; and, even twenty years before Spinoza's "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus." An all-encompassing treatise, General Anthropology to History to Doomsday. Hobbes' political ideas were much advanced if compared to his own epoch. Still today, they would not surely justify neoliberalism -- while however justifying religious tolerance. Quite suprisingly, anyway, Hobbes' view of a final universal Commonwealth has more than a hint of science fiction to it. Not to speak of his multi-generational hell, possibly a display of sarcasm. Still more suprisingly, the word "Leviathan" indicates a frightening beast as the symbol of a would-be perfect State. Really a lot of food for the mind.

Ótimo livro.

Livre acheté à la demande du lycée

Lo estoy leyendo. Muy ilustrativo de la mentalidad y los conceptos sociales de la época. Importante como preámbulo de la sociedad inglesa que más adelante promoviera el inicio de la industrialización. También, el inglés de la época es muy interesante.