The New Leviathan

Book excerpt: The New Leviathan, originally published in 1942, a few months before the author's death, is the book which R. G. Collingwood chose to write in preference to completing his life's work on the philosophy of history. It was occasioned by the Second World War and the threat which Nazism and Fascism constituted to civlization. The book draws upon many years of work in moral and political philosophy and attempts to establish the multiple and complex connections between the levels of consciousness, society, civilization, and barbarism. Collingwood argues that traditional social contract theory has failed to account for the continuing existence of the non-social community and its relation to the social community in the body politic. He is also critical of the tendency within ethics to confound right and duty. The publication of 120 pages of additional manuscript material in this revised edition demonstrates in more detail how Collingwood was determined to show that right and duty occupy different levels of rational practical consciousness. The additional writings also contain Collingwood's unequivocal rejection of relativism. David Boucher's introduction shows that The New Leviathan and The Idea of History are integrally related and that neither can be properly understood independently of the other. He is also concerned to show how many of Collingwood's ideas have a contemporary relevance, and that his ideas on barbarism are not so unusual as they might at first appear. 'A strange and fascinating book . . . The publication of this handsome new edition of The New Leviathan . . . is a welcome event.' Political Studies 'In his respectful and informative introduction David Boucher shows how The New Leviathan and the additional material appended to it fit in with Collingwood's thought as a whole.' History of Political Thought 'Throughout, the Introduction displays Boucher's usual mastery of the material, serious and probing approach, and judicious appraisal.' Collingwood Studies