His contemporaries called him the "Monster of Malmsbury," and accused him of every manner of godlessness and of profanity, while Karl Marx apparently once mumbled that he was "the father of us all," a paternal affiliation regularly repeated by modern-day political scientists. What is it about the work of Thomas Hobbes that elicits such strong, yet mutually contradictory, responses, even into our own day? In exploring that question, this seminar offers an in-depth look at Hobbes's writings and attempts to identify the pathology of his monstrous paternity. Through a kind of textual dissection, we take three cuts at the monster: first, we strip away his more well-known political and psychological theories, and expose his scientific ideas on mechanical bodies in motion; second, we graft onto this mechanical body Hobbes's psychological egoism, which posits an endlessly ravenous human nature; and third, we complete the reanimation of the monster with the addition of Hobbes's more explicitly political theories, on contract, on authority and obligation, and on state sovereignty. Through this analytical division and reconstitution, the seminar exposes the student not only to a fearsome synthetic thinker but to some of the enduring themes in western political thought, for Hobbes's synthesis of the political, economic and scientific developments of his day helps to illuminate the ongoing quest for a science of politics in our time. Format: seminar. Requirements: regular class participation; weekly written precis assignments (one page); and three essays (5-7 pgs.). Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and two courses in political theory. Permission of the instructor is required for this course. Enrollment limit: 16 (expected: 8-12). Preference to Political Science majors. Political Theory Subfield

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