On the Citizen

De Cive (On the Citizen) is the first full exposition of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher of all time. Professors Tuck and Silverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation since 1651, a rendition long thought (in error) to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself. On the Citizen is written in a clear, straightforward, expository style, and in many ways offers students a more digestible account of Hobbes’s political thought than the Leviathan itself. This new translation is both accurate and accessible, and is itself a significant scholarly event: it is accompanied by a full glossary of Latin terms, a chronology, bibliography, and an expository introduction. Throughout the editors have emphasised consistency in the translation and usage of Hobbes’s basic conceptual vocabulary, respecting Hobbes’s own concern for accurate definition of terms.

• First translation since 1651 of a crucial text by the greatest English political philosopher • Full student-friendly editorial apparatus, including glossary of terms • Perhaps the most accessible single Hobbes text now available - convenient introduction to his thought

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Note on the translation; Key words; Principal events in Hobbes’s life; Further reading; On the Citizen; Preface to the readers; 1. On the state of man without civil society; 2. On the natural law of contracts; 3. On the other laws of nature; 4. That the natural law is the divine law; 5. On the causes and generation of a commonwealth; 6. On the right of the Assembly of Man, who holds sovereign authority in the commonwealth; 7. On the three kinds of commonwealth; democracy, aristocracy and monarchy; 8. On the right of masters over slaves; 9. On the rights of parents over children, and on the Patrimonial Kingdom; 10. Comparison of the disadvantages of each of the three kinds of commonwealth; 11. Passages and examples from holy scripture about the right of kingship, which appear to support our account; 12. On the internal causes which tend to dissolve a commonwealth; 13. On the duties of those who exercise sovereign power; 14. On laws and sins; 15. On the kingdom of God by nature; 16. On the kingdom of God by the old agreement; 17. On the kingdom of God by the new agreement; 18. On what is necessary for entry into the Kingdom of heaven; Index.

‘Tuck’s introduction is characteristically fresh and supple, with an enviable range of reference and an expository ease and vividness that bring out the excitement and importance of Hobbes’s work splendidly … De Cive is one of the most valuable of all the Cambridge texts in the History of Political Thought. It packs in a remarkable amount of practical help to the reader without a hint of condescension. There could hardly be a better place to begin to grapple with the least comfortably dead of all the great political philosophers.’ The Times Higher