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Geoffrey M. Vaughan Behemoth Teaches Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Political Education. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002. ix + 165 pp. $63.00.
Geoffrey Vaughan's work on Thomas Hobbes's Behemoth, or The Long Parliament'is concise, rich and provocative. The topic of political education is an area of growing contemporary concern. Thinkers as diverse as John Rawls, Amy Gutmann, William Galston, and Peter Berkowitz each recognize that a liberal or democratic society must be held together by some commonly held opinions, a shared public ethos. Vaugharis book brings to our attention one of the founders of our modern politics and succeeds in reminding us that Hobbes is a challenging thinker for our time. The work is well conceived and comprehensive in its use of the scholarly literature (though the harshness of his criticisms of other scholars is sometimes off-putting). Vaughan makes good use of Hobbes's multiple texts and demonstrates sensitivity to changes in Hobbes's presentation over time. The central chapter offers clear and helpful accounts of Hobbes's negative version of the golden rule, the proper pkce of fear in the state of nature and in civil society, and a precise account of Hobbes's minimalist public Christianity. The conclusion-in which Vaughan suggests comparisons of Hobbes's political education to twentieth century proposals for democratic education in America-is very good for raising questions about the nature and limits of our liberalism. Hobbes may understand the limits of political culture better than we do.
Vaughan contends that most previous scholarship has failed to recognize the extent of Hobbes's concern with political action. Given his attention to the practical political problem of his time it is odd that Hobbes is not more open about explicitly political or constitutional solutions, as Vaughan notes. Instead, Vaughan argues, Hobbes proposes a political education to produce peace, stability, and loyalty. Vaughan goes even further, arguing that Hobbes subordinates philosophy to these political ends. Philosophy is justified by its utility and not by the activity of study for its own sake (13, 32).
Behemoth is about the education of the character known as "B," who is turned toward a specifically political concern and an acceptance of the Hobbesian view of human nature (82, 95-6, 99, 116, 125-6, 132-3). Vaughan is quite insistent on...