In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary

Hobbes's extreme political views have commanded so much attention that they have eclipsed his work on language and mind, and on reasoning, personhood, and group formation. But this work is of immense interest in itself, as Philip Pettit shows in Made with Words, and it critically shapes Hobbes's political philosophy.


Pettit argues that it was Hobbes, not later thinkers like Rousseau, who invented the invention of language thesis--the idea that language is a cultural innovation that transformed the human mind. The invention, in Hobbes's story, is a double-edged sword. It enables human beings to reason, commit themselves as persons, and incorporate in groups. But it also allows them to agonize about the future and about their standing relative to one another; it takes them out of the Eden of animal silence and into a life of inescapable conflict--the state of nature. Still, if language leads into this wasteland, according to Hobbes, it can also lead out. It can enable people to establish a commonwealth where the words of law and morality have a common, enforceable sense, and where people can invoke the sanctions of an absolute sovereign to give their words to one another in credible commitment and contract.


Written by one of today's leading philosophers, Made with Words is both an original reinterpretation and a clear and lively introduction to Hobbes's thought.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-8
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. One: Mind in Nature
  2. pp. 9-23
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Two: Minds with Words
  2. pp. 24-41
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Three: Using Words to Ratiocinate
  2. pp. 42-54
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Four: Using Words to Personate
  2. pp. 55-69
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Five: Using Words to Incorporate
  2. pp. 70-83
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Six: Words and the Warping of Appetite
  2. pp. 84-97
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Seven: The State of Second, Worded Nature
  2. pp. 98-114
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Eight: The Commonwealth of Ordered Words
  2. pp. 115-140
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Summary
  2. pp. 141-154
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 155-168
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. References
  2. pp. 169-176
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 177-183
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.