Human Nature Part II De Corpore Politico — Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was the first great philosopher to write in English His account of the human condition first developed in The Elements of Law 1640 which comprises Human Nature and De Corpore Politico is a direct product of the intellectural and political strife of the seventeenth century It is also a remarkably penetrating look at human nature and a permanently relevant analysis of the fears of self seeking that result in the war of each against every man In The Elements of Law Hobbes memorably sets out both the main lines of his general philosophy later augmented in De Corpore 1655 and the moral and political philosophy later made famous in Leviathan 1651 Copies of Human Nature and De Corpore Politico until 1889 printed as separate works are rare antiques or scarcely less rare scholarly texts this is the first complete popular edition It is here supplemented by chapters from De Corpore and Three Lives two from Hobbess original Latin These have never before been published together in English