SOURCE: Arlene W. Saxonhouse, "Hobbes and the Beginnings of Modern Political Thought," in Thomas Hobbes, Three Discourses: A Critical Modern Edition of Newly Identified Work of the Young Hobbes, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and Arlene W. Saxonhouse, The University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 123-54.

In the following excerpt, Saxonhouse discusses three newly-attributed, pre-scientific writings of the young Hobbes.

introduction

There are many ways to read the three Discourses: for what they tell us about the social and religious life of the English aristocrat in the early decades of the seventeenth century, for what they tell us about where people traveled comfortably (and not so comfortably), for an understanding of the development of the literary genres of the essay and the discourse. Our purpose here, though, is briefly to explore the political ideas of the author whose later writings are masterpieces of political theory and whose work gave...