Coordinator: Claudia Dumitru (Princeton University)
Thursdays/6-8 PM Bucharest time/via Zoom
This is a reading group that will meet weekly for two hours during the spring semester, to discuss a selection of texts by Thomas Hobbes. The guiding theme will be the relationship between Hobbes’s political philosophy and the other parts of his system (e.g. his natural philosophy). We will be discussing topics such as: Hobbes’s definition of philosophy and science, his method in natural philosophy and political philosophy, his materialist anthropology, the role of self-knowledge for political philosophy etc.
These are all topics that have an extensive secondary literature around them—I will propose some questions and interpretations raised by this scholarship as starting points for discussion (and indicate the sources for further reading), but we will mostly be focusing on primary texts. We will read chapters from Hobbes’s political works (mainly the Leviathan and the Elements of Law) as well as from his De Corpore.
Audience: The reading group is aimed advanced undergraduate and master students, though anyone else is welcome to join as well. No familiarity with Hobbes or early modern philosophy required. We’ll have 25-50 pages of primary text to read per week. I might add other primary texts or secondary literature as we go along, but only as optional readings. The texts we discuss will be in English. We can decide together what language our discussion will be in.
Logistics: If you want to sign up, please give Dana Jalobeanu your email address (or email me directly at cdumitru@princeton.edu). I will email you the Zoom link for the meeting and a link to a folder with the texts.
The first session will be largely introductory. Starting with the second session, I will also distribute a few questions in advance that I would like us to keep in mind while reading and that can guide our discussion.
I have added here a tentative reading schedule for the first 4 (out of a total 13) meetings of our reading group. It is subject to change depending on how quickly we move through the texts and how our discussion progresses.
First month readings:
- February 18: short intro session
No reading, but feel free to look over Hobbes’ verse autobiography or Aubrey’s Brief Life of Hobbes. I will say a few things about Hobbes, the texts we are reading, and what I am hoping we’ll discuss in the reading group.
- February 25: setting the scene
Epistle Dedicatory to The Elements of Law, Epistle Dedicatory & Preface to the Reader to De Cive, Epistle Dedicatory & Introduction to Leviathan, Epistle Dedicatory to De Corpore
- March 4: science and philosophy
De Corpore, chapters 1 & 6; Leviathan, chapter 6, De Homine, chapter 10
- March 11: physics and sense perception
De Corpore, chapter 25; Leviathan, chapters 1-2; Elements of Law, chapter 2-3;