Reader's Companion to The Prince, Leviathan, and the Second Treatise

Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke each sought a new foundation for political order. This book serves as a reader's companion to Machiavelli'sThe Prince, Hobbes'sLeviathan, and Locke'sSecond Treatisewritten for graduate students and scholars seeking a fuller understanding of these classictexts. How do these philosophers respond to perennial questions such as why anyone is ever obligated to obey a government and whether there are any limits to such an obligation. In this book, Bookman begins by sorting out thehermeneutical controversy between textualists and contextualists, offers a chapter-by-chapter commentary on the textspunctuated by questions for the reader's reflection, and finally suggests a firmer foundation for a theory of political obligation than Hobbes's and Locke's consent theories. Also included are bibliographical essays keyed to selectbibliographies, providing readers with a wide-ranging, critical reviewof the secondary literature. Intendedto be read alongside the primary work, the work is a full intellectual, critical, and bibliographical history, as well as a fresh examination of three classic texts in politicaltheory and philosophy.