Excerpt

For a long time, Thomas Hobbes was held to be a notorious writer, comparable in fame to Machiavelli. Yet, for several decades the situation has been changing.¹ One can conclusively read this off from the fact that the 300th return of the anniversary of his death brought forth more colloquia in the universities of Europe and America than occurred upon the anniversaries of the deaths of Rousseau and Voltaire about a year ago.² And for a while there has been a rich literature on Hobbes. Hobbes has become a contemporary author, and some hold him today to be the most…