Aspects of Hobbes [Hardcover]

Aspects of Hobbes is an unassuming title for what is no less than a landmark in Hobbes studies. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the world of Hobbes. (Renaissance Quarterly )

[Noel Malcolm] is a figure of incisive intelligence and great literary tact. Aspects of Hobbes shows his astonishing range to great advantage, casting light from all points of the compass on his single most enduring obsession, the incomparable Thomas Hobbes. (Times Higher Education Supplement )

... while the earliest essays reprinted here never fall below a high level, the more recent ones join maturity of judgement to breadth of learning. (Political Studies Review )

The illuminating quality of these pieces derives, (too), from a pertinacity that causes the author to explore relentlessly the byways as well as the highways of Hobbes's era, and to bring back many unexpected treats for the reader. (Political Studies Review )

Malcolm's arguments are direct and very well-informed ... There is no doubt about the quality of the scholarship and writing in this book. Anyone engaged in the history of ideas will profit from Malcolm's work. Anyone not currently engaged could do no better than to start with this book as their introduction. Malcolm's biography of Hobbes is something to look forward to. (The Philosophers' Magazine )

Malcolm displays not just a formidable grip on a diversity of detail, but an admirable clarity and precision in the presentation of his arguments, sustaining a genuine urgency about the conclusions of his enquiries. (The Philosophers' Magazine )

Malcolm adeptly marshals his arguments, deftly states his views and, more often than not, dispatches his scholarly opponents. All done in an eminently readable and informative style, such that the previously uninformed reader profits both from the substance of Malcolm's views and their presentation. (The Philosophers' Magazine )

Aspects of Hobbes is a work of profound scholarship, displaying a breadth and depth of erudition that is beyond praise. But it is much more than that: Malcolm never loses the reader in the fascinating details of Hobbes's intellectual background and influence that he has uncovered. By linking the minutiae of his life and times with the core claims of his works he has given us a remarkable study in early modern European intellectual history. (New Statesman )

Magnificent ... The book is a monument to scholarship. It shows what can be achieved when a fine historian gets to grips with a great philosopher, and it is worth any number of internalist re-readings of Hobbes's texts. (Mark Goldie, Times Literary Supplement )

One of the most comprehensive portraits of Hobbes's intellectual development, career and contexts yet written ... Malcolm's essay 'Hobbes's theory of International Relations' should be required reading for all students of IR ... this is a very impressive book by one of the world's leading Hobbes scholars. It is elegantly written and massively erudite throughout, covering a vast and complex range of issues, ideas and personalities. As well as brilliant snapshots of some of the lesser known and even arcane aspects of the life and works of Thomas Hobbes, it provides a necessary corrective to the simplistic and unhistorical way in which he has been appropriated by generations of IR scholars. (Duncan S. A. Bell, University of Cambridge, UK )

Many have written on Hobbes, but few have had the wealth and depth of historical knowledge, the linguistic and bibliographic skills and, most significantly, the philosophical rigorousness which Malcolm deploys consistently in Aspects of Hobbes, a collection of 14 impressive, and often also delightful, scholarly papers. (Sylvana Tomaselli, The Spectator )

Malcolm has a firm grasp of the main philosophical and political questions raised by Hobbes, and has given his material a clear intellectual form. (Edward Skidelsky, Daily Telegraph )

Aspects of Hobbes brings together for the first time Malcolm's published essays on Hobbes with extensive new contributions, many of which substantially alter our understanding of the great philosopher ... Malcolm's formidable intellectual range matches that of his subject. (Jon Parkin, The Guardian )

This is Malcolm the uncompromising scholar and historian ... the range is astonishing. Repeatedly he crosses boundaries of period, of nation, of language ... formidable learning. (Blair Worden, Sunday Telegraph )

Noel Malcolm is a Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.