Book review: Thomas Hobbes: Radical in the Service Of Reaction
Thomas Hobbes: Radical in the Service of Revolution
by Arnold A. Rogow
Published by W.W. Norton (February 1, 2005)
Buy it at: Amazon
The best trivia
- We did a full post about the Thomas Hobbes workout. The philosopher lived to 91 by eating light, exercising, and singing.
- Hobbes wasn’t the best student. He was “put in the lowest class for logic.” Physics was hard and Hobbes was a super-senior—he spent five years getting his bachelor’s degree.
- Hobbes could get in a fight. He called the pope “King of the Fairies” and routinely insulted the papacy. He compared English clergy to fairies as well.
- Hobbes lived from 1588 to 1679. At that time, even a genius was an idiot compared to modern intellectuals. He didn’t believe in gravity, thought lightning killed men with cold, and believed strong winds were caused by ice.
The political philosopher who endured for centuries
Thomas Hobbes has remained in the cultural consciousness thanks to everything from Sunday morning pundits to Calvin and Hobbes. But knowing the basics about the philosopher doesn’t mean we know much about his life.
Arnold Rogow tries to remedy that with his Hobbes biography. It suffers some from a lack of information, because it’s simply difficult to write a well-sourced biography of someone who died in 1679. But through the scraps that have stuck around it’s still possible to get a picture of the prickly philosopher’s life and times, from his education to his engagement with the world at large.
Thomas Hobbes is for true diehards of the Leviathan author. Though his influence in modern political thought has waxed and waned, it’s certain that Hobbes will always be remembered for his arguments for the state.
What the book is
Thomas Hobbes is a biography of Thomas Hobbes the man. It assumes familiarity with his philosophy and its impact, allowing the reader to explore the conditions Hobbes lived in.
What the book isn’t
Thomas Hobbes won’t give you analysis of Hobbes’s work or his impact throughout history. It’s intended for people who want to dig deep, not learn the basics. It assumes you’ll have knowledge of Hobbes’s ideas, his contemporaries, and his era’s political tumult.
