II. Quentin Skinner's Method

IE NTE R I NTO TH E WO R LD of Thomas Hobbes’ L eviathan O E N evi is, in some sense, to become an alien, to gaze at a world to which one remains a visitor no matter how often he returns. Leviathan, like an artifact from a foreign country, needs to be interpreted before it can be fully experienced and understood. The tourist-the reader-must have the major landmarks and their meanings pointed out if he is not to wander about aimlessly. Interpretation is always an attempt somehow to locate the foreign object or phenomenon within the intelligible experiences and consciousness of the interpreter and his audience. Thus, interpretative manuals are like guidebooks; they are selective and represent the interests of their authors or, at best, what their authors take to be the needs of the well-informed reader. Also like tourists’ handbooks, interpretations may constrict the reader’s vision and prevent him from seeing and appreciating something that is not mentioned. Leviathan is a particularly deceptive text; its terrain is so apparently familiar that it is difficult to regard it as significantly alien. Hobbes seems to be dealing with things about which we already know-obligation, consent and contract, and natural law. Moreover, the ground has been well and much covered, and the paths are clearly marked. Even acknowledging that guides are needed, we have them in abundance, and they have