Hobbes and religion … in Hebrew

A collection of scholars weigh in on an odd, but interesting event: the first full publication of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan in Hebrew.  While the first two parts (dealing with philosophy and politics) have long been available, the third and fourth (which deal with religion) had not yet been translated and published in the Hebrew language.

Among others, Yoram Hazony laments the suppression of the “Hebraic” side of Hobbes, and philosopher Stephen Darwall lavishes the following praise:

Thomas Hobbes is our greatest political philosopher. Why greatest? Others philosophized in the service of sounder political ideas, like democracy and human rights, but no one else has had Hobbes’s systematic mastery, rigor and originality.

Hobbes’s “state of nature” and authoritarianism have stood the test of time, but his theological thought is largely ignored today (the latter half of “Leviathan” is rarely assigned in class).  It is a bit of a slow read.  Perhaps we need a translation of our own, into modern English…

-Colin

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November 18, 2009 · Filed Under Colin, History of Political Thought, Uncategorized

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