![]() ![]() Hobbes’s claim to found the first true political science should be understood against the background of the political thinkers he seeks to supplant, chiefly Aristotle. These ideas are most comprehensively set forth in the Leviathan (1651), which text serves as the basis for this introduction to Hobbes’s thought. He argues that human beings are not naturally social or political, that the state of nature is a state of war, and that we must self-consciously create a government that is based on mutual consent and that presupposes a fundamental equality among its members. Hobbes emphasizes several ideas that have become central to modern politics and modern political science. By focusing political energies on the preservation of life and its comforts, Hobbes helps to institute the proposal made earlier by Machiavelli: that politics should satisfy certain basic, morally neutral needs rather than aim to organize us around contentious principles. In order to achieve these results, though, Hobbes must promote a view of the proper scope of politics that is narrower than that of the ancients. ![]() ![]() Hobbes claims, moreover, that his systematic political science will revolutionize political practice, enabling us to build more stable, peaceful, and productive societies. Thomas Hobbes presents himself as the first true political philosopher, the first to offer exact knowledge of justice, sovereignty, and citizenship. ![]()
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