SOURCE: An introduction to Hobbes on Civil Association, Basil Blackwell, 1975, pp. 1-74.

In the following excerpt from his introduction to Leviathan, Oakeshott discusses what philosophy meant to Hobbes, and how to approach reading him.

the Context of Gi; the Context of leviathan =~ Sleviathan

Leviathan is the greatest, perhaps the sole, masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language. And the history of our civilization can provide only a few works of similar scope and achievement to set beside it. Consequently, it must be judged by none but the highest standards and must be considered only in the widest context. The masterpiece supplies a standard and a context for the second-rate, which indeed is but a gloss; but the context of the masterpiece itself, the setting in which its meaning is revealed, can in the nature of things be nothing narrower than the history of political philosophy.

Reflection...