Hobbes in Hebrew

Social Theory folks might be interested in NYTimes blog conversation on publication (& mass popularity) of Hobbes' Leviathan in Hebrew....

November 15, 2009, 7:00 pm

Hobbes in Hebrew: The Religion Question

By THE EDITORS

“Leviathan” is arguably the most influential work of Western political thought, and one of the most analyzed. Yet the first full Hebrew translation of Thomas’s Hobbes’s work was only published last month. While the first two parts have long been available in translation, the third and fourth parts — in which Hobbes addresses religion and the state — had not appeared in Hebrew.

Of all the universally read works of political philosophy, why has it taken so long to translate all of “Leviathan” into Hebrew? In addition to the significance of the full translation to Hebrew and Israeli scholarship, what more can scholars in the rest of the world learn about “Leviathan,” written in 1660?

[Read the discussion...]