Filozofski vestnih Volume/Letn ik X X I V • Number/Številka 2 • 2003 
PREFACE 
This special issue of the FILOZOFSKI VESTNIK is dedicated to Thomas Hobbes's 
Behemoth. 
Hobbes's Behemoth has always been overshadowed by his more famous 
Leviathan. Leviathan is arguably Hobbes's masterpiece and is one of the greatest 
works of political philosophy. Behemoth, Hobbes's "booke of the Civill Warr," on the 
other hand, is most often seen as little more than a history of the English Civil War and 
Interregnum. While Hobbes's analysis in Leviathan touched off great debate, 
Behemoth has never been much discussed. 
And yet, the two books are intimately related. They both analyze sovereign public 
authority. Where Leviathan discusses the institution of the state, Behemoth gives an 
account of its destruction. In Behemoth, Hobbes presupposes the subject matter of 
Leviathan - the creation of "that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, OR 
STATE"— but adds an essential dimension. For in Behemoth he analyzes how the state 
can be destroyed, and at what cost. 
In my Call for Papers I suggested that Hobbes's political philosophy can only be 
fully appreciated by studying his views on both the institution and the destruction of 
the state. I also proposed that Hobbes's often neglected analysis of the destruction of 
sovereign power in Behemoth has great resonance for much of what is going on in the 
world today. Invitees were asked to analyze and interpret Behemoth and to explore the 
relevance of Hobbes's account of the "causes of the civil-wars of England and of the 
councels and artifices by which they were carried on" for today's debates about the 
decline of sovereignty and the state, and the rise of religious and democratic fun-
damentalisms. The following papers have fulfilled that task admirably and open up 
rich terrain for future contributions to this area of study. 
I would like to thank all who kindly and favorably responded to my invitation, 
especially those whose contributions appear in these pages. My special thanks go to John 
Dunn, Stephen Holmes, Istvan Hont, and Richard Tuck for their encouragement and 
advice in the initial phase of this project. 
This issue was prepared while I was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Remarque 
Institute, New York University. I would like to thank its Director, Tony Judt, and Jair 
Kessler, the Assistant Diector, for their hospitality. 
New York, September 2003 
Tomaz Mastnak 
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