Intellectual Isolation Research Articles

Still Kissing the Rod? Whither next?

Although early modern women complained of their lack of access to education, it is clear that many of them did not function in intellectual or linguistic isolation. This article calls upon scholars of early modern women writers to widen their perspective and activities to include not only European writers of the period, but also other languages (such as Latin, Greek and French) and archival resources in other countries. Early modern culture was aware of the existence of a female international republic of letters. Femmes savantes like Anna Maria van Shurman, Elena Piscopia and Sophia Brenner were widely famed for their linguistic and literary abilities, and in France, Germany, Spain and Poland other learned women were recipients of royal and aristocratic patronage. Evidence suggests that there were networks and connections between these European women and their English counterparts. Scholarly exploration that includes a European perspective and polyglottal approach would allow a reassessment of the intellectual significance of seventeenth-century English women such as Lucy Hutchinson, Bathsua Makin, Dorothy Moore and Lady Ranelagh.

Neuroethics, National Security and Secrecy

Neuroethics, National Security and Secrecy

Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: Turco-Mongol Imperial Identity on the Subcontinent

Re-evaluating the scholarly and intellectual isolation with which India's Mughal empire has been treated, this study identifies the Mughals as direct descendants of Chinggis Khan and Tamerlane (Timur). It also explores the systematic manipulation of their Central Asian legacy through which the Mughals defined and defended their imperial identity and political viability on the South Asian subcontinent. In identifying and examining Mughal loyalty to Turco-Mongol institutions and traditions, the study positions the Mughal dynasty in the center of the early modern Islamic world as the direct successor of a powerful political and religious tradition.

Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?

To judge by the absence of religion from the pages of the American Political Science Review in its first century, most political scientists have embraced a secular understanding of the political world. We explore the evolving status of religion in the discipline by examining patterns of scholarly inquiry in the discipline's flagship journal. After finding religion an (at best) marginal topic and rejecting some plausible hypotheses for this outcome, we examine the major reasons religion has received so little attention—the intellectual origins of the discipline, the social background of practitioners, the complexity of religious measurements, and the event-driven agenda of political science. Despite the resurgence of scholarly interest in religion during the 1980s, the status of the subfield remains tenuous because of the intellectual isolation of research on the topic.

Minding the Gap Between Positivism and Hermeneutics in Psychoanalytic Research

Two quite different cultures are to be found within psychoanalysis, one more clinical in orientation, more focused on meaning and interpretation, and relying primarily on the traditional case study method, the other more research-oriented, focused on cause-and-effect relationships, and relying primarily on methods borrowed from the natural and social sciences. The history of this divide is reviewed and arguments, pro and con, about the potential contributions of specific types of empirical investigation are discussed. Increasingly, it seems, criticisms concerning the scientific status of psychoanalysis are being responded to by empirical research. This has contributed to a growing recognition within the scientific community of the credibility of aspects of psychoanalytic theories and of the effectiveness of psychodynamic treatment. However, some segments of the psychoanalytic community are concerned that this increase in the quantity and quality of empirical research on psychoanalytic concepts risks creating an empirical one-sidedness, while other segments are concerned that not engaging in systematic empirical research can lead to intellectual isolation, fragmentation, stagnation, and orthodoxy. To counter this polarizing tendency, a recommendation is made for methodological pluralism. Adopting this stance could contribute to an enriched understanding of the clinical process and to the development of new research methodologies to investigate complex psychodynamic hypotheses, thus bridging the gap between the two psychoanalytic cultures, as well as the gap between research and clinical practice.

G. Stanley Hall: Psychologist and Early Gerontologist

G. STANLEY HALL WAS instrumental in founding psychology as a science and in its development as a profession. He is best known for his work on child development, especially adolescence, yet he also wrote a powerful treatise on the economic, social, and intellectual isolation of the elderly. Senescence, excerpted here, was the first major analysis by an American social scientist of the changing experience of aging.1 Granville Stanley Hall was born on his parents’ farm in Ashfield, Mass, on February 1, 1844. His father, Granville Bascom Hall, served in the Massachusetts legislature, and his mother, Abigail Beals, studied at the Albany Female Seminary and taught school. They passed on to their son their love of learning as well as a strong sense of religious piety, and Hall grew up determined to make a contribution to the world. He initially planned to become a minister.2 Hall graduated from Williams College in 1867 and enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York City the same year. He completed his training in 1870, although after 10 weeks as a church pastor he decided to leave the ministry. From 1872 to 1876, Hall taught literature and philosophy at Antioch College. He then undertook research with H. P. Bowditch at Harvard Medical School and in 1878 was awarded the first PhD in psychology in the United States. After failing to secure a professorship, Hall went to Germany, where he studied physiological psychology at laboratories in Berlin and Leipzig. He also spent time investigating the possibilities of applying psychology to education. He returned to the United States in 1880 and was invited by Harvard to give a series of public lectures on education. The lectures were so successful that he repeated the series the following year and was invited to deliver a similar series at Johns Hopkins University in 1881. In 1882 Hall was appointed a lecturer in psychology and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins University, becoming a professor in 1884. This professorship was the first chair in the new field of psychology in the country. Hall was a major force in organizing the field, focusing on scientific approaches and in 1883 establishing a psychology laboratory at the university.3 In 1887 he launched the American Journal of Psychology, and in 1892 he convened the American Psychological Association and served as its first president. In 1888, Hall became the first president of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass. He envisioned Clark as a major graduate school and invited a number of leading scholars to join the faculty, including anthropologist Franz Boas and biologist C. O. Whitman. The accidental asphyxiation of Hall’s wife and daughter in 1890 left him raising his young son alone,4 yet over the course of the next decade he made some of his most significant contributions to the new science of psychology. He developed his influential concept of “genetic psychology,” based on evolutionary theory, and solidified his reputation as a leading educational reformer. In 1904, Hall published Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. In this 2-volume study, based on the idea that child development recapitulates human evolution, Hall took on a variety of issues and synthesized scholarship from a wide range of disciplines. After his retirement in 1920, Hall wrote a companion volume on aging. This important account has been labeled “prophetic” in its recognition of an emerging “crisis of aging” in the 20th century, in which longer lifespan, narrowing family roles, and expulsion from the workforce combined to dramatically isolate the elderly and restrict their active participation in public life.1 Hall railed against this process, arguing that the wisdom conferred by old age meant that the elderly had valuable and creative contributions to make to society. Yet, the stigma of aging meant that, instead, many were engaged in the foolish pursuit of youth, trying to avoid being excluded from full participation in their communities. In the conclusion of the book, Hall expressed a tangible sense of personal anger against this form of discrimination.5 His stirring call for a better understanding of the aging process anticipated the development of gerontology, and his critique of the marginalization of the elderly still resonates today.

Vegetation change: a reunifying concept in plant ecology

Specialization can become detrimental to a discipline if it fosters intellectual isolation. A bibliographic analysis of several research areas in plant ecology (invasion biology, succession ecology, gap/patch dynamics, and global change effects on plants) revealed that plant ecologists do not regularly make use of the findings and insights of very similar studies being conducted in other research subdisciplines, nor do they try to make their findings and insights easily accessible to researchers in other areas. Invasion papers were least likely to be cross-linked (6%) with other fields, whereas gap/patch dynamics papers were most likely to be cross-linked (15%). This tendency toward intellectual isolation may be impeding efforts to achieve more powerful generalizations in ecology by reducing the number of potentially productive exchanges among researchers. In this paper, we illustrate this problem using the example of several speciality areas that study vegetation change. We argue that, rather than characterizing studies of vegetation change on the basis of what distinguishes them from one another, plant ecologists would benefit from concentrating on what such studies have in common. As an example, we propose that several speciality areas of plant ecology could be reunified under the term ecology of vegetation change. Individual researchers, journals, and ecological societies all can take specific steps to increase the useful exchange of ideas and information among research areas. Promoting rapid and more effective communication among diverse researchers may reduce the proliferation of narrow theories, concepts, and terminologies associated with particular research areas. In this way, we can expedite our understanding of the ecological mechanisms and consequences associated with plant communities.

News and Notes

It is always a pleasure to start the column with good news and here is some very heartening news indeed: ‘I have no words to express our delight in using HINARI. The library staff and the library users extremely appreciate this initiative. It has helped us regain our sense of giving valuable and prompt information to our medical doctors and researchers.’ Medical Faculty, Skopje, Macedonia ‘On behalf of the University of Asmara biomedical literature users, I thank you very much. We are all very excited to use it.’Dean, College of Health Sciences, University of Asmara, Eritrea ‘It has been a very popular initiative here. Intellectual isolation is considered one of the factors why African research centers cannot develop world-class researchers. This can go some way to changing that.’ MRC Laboratories, The Gambia These comments are just some of the thanks that the World Health Organization has received about HINARI—the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative—to bring online medical and health science journals to researchers in low-income countries. Our publishers, Blackwell Publishing, are one of the founding partners and Addiction is proud to be one of the journals offered. HINARI has been in place for 18 months and the uptake of the offer amongst eligible nations has been very strong. In 103 countries, 1220 institutions have so far benefited from improved e-journal availability. Of course there remain many challenges related to infrastructure and Internet access in some areas, but one senses the enormous goodwill that exists to help solve the problems. More information about HINARI is at http://www.healthinternetwork.net The World Health Organization has just published its Global Report on Alcohol Policy (WHO 2004), the most ambitious attempt yet to describe the present status of alcohol policies in 118 countries across the world. Part of the continuous work coming out of the WHO Global Alcohol Database, and building on earlier reports (Global Status Report on Alcohol 1999, and Global Status Report on Alcohol and Young People 2001), the present work aims to provide an objective baseline for monitoring and evaluation efforts; also to act as an advocacy tool for identifying gaps and raising awareness of public health issues among government officials and policymakers. Alcohol consumption is the leading risk factor for disease burden in low-mortality developing countries, and the third largest risk factor in developed countries. Causal relationships have been established between alcohol consumption and more than 60 types of disease and injury. More generally, the report's message is clear and emphatic on the impact of alcohol-related harm: ‘On a population level, alcohol-related harm is not confined to the relatively small number of heavy drinkers or people diagnosed with alcohol use disorders. Even non-drinkers can become victims of alcohol-related aggression, for example. Light and moderate drinkers, i.e. the majority of the population in many countries, who occasionally drink at high risk levels, while being individually responsible for fewer harms than heavy drinkers, are collectively responsible, due to their greater numbers, for the largest share of alcohol's burden on society.’ On the same theme, Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (English supplement; Ramstedt 2004) carries an ‘everyman's guide’ to the role of alcohol in the global and regional burden of disease. It can be accessed online in full text (see URL below). The issue also contains an analysis of changing alcohol policies in the Nordic countries (brought about by the impact of the world trade treaties) and commentaries on the relation between the industry, scientific research community and policymakers in both the alcohol and tobacco fields. Furthermore, readers may be interested to know that Addiction has commissioned a series of in-depth profiles of the alcohol experience in different parts of the world. The featured countries are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Russia, South Africa, UK and USA. Look out for these editorials in volume 100. To round off this survey of new reading material, the Eurocare magazine, The Globe, has a double issue featuring Bridging the Gap, the European Alcohol Policy conference held in Warsaw, Poland, in June (The Globe 2004). Summaries of keynote speeches are given, along with selected papers from this important conference: Christine Godfrey on financial costs and benefits of alcohol; Ann Hope on alcohol policy and young people; Hans Laurell on measures against drink-driving; Alain Rigaud and Michel Craplet on the ‘Loi Evin’ (which prohibits alcohol advertising in France) and how it could form a model for the development of advertising bans and restrictions in other countries.

‘BUSHVELD MAGIC’ AND ‘MIRACLE DOCTORS’–AN EXPLORATION OF EUGÈNE MARAIS AND C. LOUIS LEIPOLDT'S EXPERIENCES IN THE WATERBERG, SOUTH AFRICA, c. 1906–1917

This article contributes to the critique of a particular historiographical construction of the rural socio-intellectual world of the Afrikaner, which portrays that world as narrowly Calvinist and culturally circumscribed, with rigidly patrolled racial borders. This challenge is effected through an investigation into the world of the Bushveld Boer through the work of Eugène Marais (1871–1936) and Christiaan Frederick Louis Leipoldt (1880–1947). The article seeks to show that the practical workings of agrarian race relations allowed for a certain measure of cultural osmosis, facilitating Afrikaner interest in African and traditional healing practices. Afrikaner interest in the paranormal and psychic, with an emphasis on European trends, is also investigated, to demonstrate that the image of intellectual isolation has been exaggerated. This is a contribution to the ongoing project of historians interested in Afrikaner identity, who probe the image of a monolithic, Calvinist past and stress variety and often secular thinking.

Navigating marginality en route to the professoriate: graduate students of color learning and living in academia

The author contends that marginalization is a major issue for graduate students of color in their doctoral studies. She explains three forms of marginalization, and suggests some strategies for how each can be counteracted. These are physical, cultural and intellectual isolation, benign neglect and problematic popularity. Her analyses are informed by insights gleaned from her personal experiences as a student and professor of color in predominantly White institutions (PWIs), her observations and interactions with graduate students of color as an instructor and doctoral studies advisor, and from the research and scholarship of other scholars. The author makes an appeal for professors of color and their European American colleagues to make their curriculum, instruction advising, mentoring and relationships more culturally responsive to ethnically, racially and linguistically diverse students. By doing so they can teach these students more effectively how to navigate the marginality they encounter en route to the professoriate, and how to be more successful in executing their roles and responsibilities as professors of color.

One Community or Two Solitudes: Ontology, Epistemology, and Praxiology of Canadian and American Leisure Research

Ed Jackson invites us to consider extent to which [leisure] research-and researchers-[in Canada and the U.S.A.] can be considered as a single, integrated community, or, alternatively, existing side-by-side but in intellectual isolation from each other. For Canadians this is but another instance of a recurrent theme-to what extent does American hegemony influence, or dominate, Canada? Although some Americans may find the question to be little more than a curiosity, it does provide an occasion for useful self-examination and collective reflection. The method applied by Jackson in attempting to answer his question is to compare the dissemination of published research (articles in selected leisure journals and papers presented at selected leisure conferences) by American and Canadian leisure researchers. The dimensions explored include amount, timing, and longevity of research activity and whether the journal or conference was American or Canadian. Thus, researchers are categorized as publishing/presenting in (1) only Canadian journals/conferences; (2) only American journals/conferences, and; (3) both Canadian and American journals/conferences. His conclusion is that there are two solitudes in that Canadians and Americans tend to publish articles/present papers in their own journals/conferences. While this is especially true for American leisure researchers, the more productive scholars from both countries do not follow the pattern, such that within that group there is a trend towards community.The root of Jackson's inquiry concerns the notion of what distinguishes one academic community from another. Jackson wants to know if Canadian and American leisure researchers are separate, distinct intellectual communities working in relative isolation. To address this issue one must have an understanding of what constitutes an intellectual discipline or academic community. Shermis (1962) held that such a community must:1. have a recognizable tradition and identifiable history of its own;2. have an organized body of knowledge it has developed, and;3. address solutions to problems of significance to society, (p. 84)Consequently, if Canadian and Americans make up separate leisure research communities they ought to have distinct historical traditions of research, different bodies of knowledge, and their own sets of solutions to problems of leisure in their respective societies. Moreover, any such intellectual, academic, research community will display identifiable structural features that allow it to organize its pattern of inquiry and identify its object of inquiry. Erekson (1992) describes three basic kinds of disciplinary structure-organizational, substantive, and syntactical structure. Organizational structure includes the organization of research production, academic curricula, as well as the structure of knowledge communication. Substantive structure deals with the questions to be asked, the data needed, and the ideas used to interpret the data. Syntactical structure addresses the manner in which data are collected, and the methods and techniques applied. Thus, if the scholarly leisure studies communities in Canada and the U.S.A. are separate and isolated they would each have their own identifiable organization of the field of Leisure Studies, unique methodological syntax, and differing substantive areas of inquiry. To what extent does Jackson's investigation address these fundamental issues? Can any examination of published articles and papers presented at conferences provide clues to these essential questions?Given the profundity of these considerations, Jackson ostensibly invites the reader on a metaphysical journey-how is leisure scholarship (in Canada and the U.S.A.) conceived, organized, and how does it work? It is useful, then, to investigate these questions from a paradigmatic perspective (see, for example, Hemingway, 1999), especially if, as Rojek (1985) claims, leisure is a field of study characterized by multiparadigmatic rivalry. …

Our desired future for personality psychology

The strengths and weaknesses of personality psychology are examined. Major strengths of the field include its breadth and integrative quality, and sophistication in methodology and analytic strategies. However, intellectual isolation stands as a potential threat to the vitality of personality, and a heavy reliance on single-time self-report measures places limitations on findings. The authors give an overview of the major topics published in JPSP in recent years, and highlight the international character of personality research. Our recommendations include continuing the tradition of employing rigorous methods, using multiple methods and multiple studies to replicate findings, and bridging the gap between childhood temperament and adult personality.

Uma análise das referências feitas por Skinner de 1930 a 1938

As referências feitas por um autor podem indicar os vínculos entre o conhecimento que está sendo produzido e os conhecimentos disponíveis que estão sendo discutidos, aceitos, ou recusados; ou podem ser registros daqueles vínculos que um autor precisou reconhecer publicamente de forma a ter seu trabalho aceito. As referências constantes das 35 publicações de B. F. Skinner, no período de 1930 a 1938, foram analisadas com o objetivo de avaliar a existência de um possível isolamento intelectual de Skinner nesse período. Foram identificadas 275 referências, envolvendo 151 títulos diferentes e, incluindo Skinner, 106 diferentes autores, sendo o próprio Skinner o autor mais referido (126 referências). Nas publicações em que Skinner faz relatos de estudos experimentais (19 publicações) a maior parte das referências são a seu próprio trabalho anterior. Conclui-se que, tendo em vista as peculiaridades metodológicas e conceituais de seu sistema em desenvolvimento, no período, Skinner precisou recorrer a seu próprio trabalho, razão do peso das referências a si mesmo.

Intellectual isolation, geographical isolation and information overload of academics at a rural university: an information-seeking perspective

This paper reports the results of a study of the information-seeking behaviour of academics for research and teaching at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga campus. Thirty academics were interviewed about their information-seeking behaviour, a diary of impressions recorded from interviews was kept, and participants’ reactions to draft transcripts of their interviews were noted. A key finding of this research was the way in which informationseeking behaviour was motivated. It was found that a range of influences was responsible for participants choosing which direction to take. Three influences are combining to make rural academics’ information seeking for research and teaching more challenging. The first is a perceived reduction in information access is engendering feelings of geographical isolation. The second, intellectual isolation, arises largely from feelings of a reduction in expectations of self-efficacy. The third influence is information overload, which appears to be affecting both rural- and urban-based academics and is demotivating them from seeking information. Introduction

Faculty Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion: Barriers for Women

Women faculty continue to experience academe differently than male faculty. A review of recent literature indicates that women's representation on university faculties has advanced slowly; women are less likely to be tenured or promoted compared to male faculty; and women faculty earn less than their male colleagues. A recurring theme is that the intellectual and social isolation of women faculty affects their research productivity. Gender stereotypes held by colleagues, departmental and college administrators, and students also contribute to the difficulties women face in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process. A personal perspective on the reappointment process is provided in order to illustrate how isolation and naïvete regarding the social structure of academe can affect a woman's career advancement. The benefits of greater representation of women on university faculties are reviewed, and departmental and college administrators are reminded of the important role they play in ensuring future gender-balanced faculties.

Reflections on the Future of Leisure Studies

(2000). Reflections on the Future of Leisure Studies. Journal of Leisure Research: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 125-128.

A Commentary On The Perils Of Intellectual Isolation

According to a study recently conducted by Samdahl and Kelly (1999), leisure research is intellectually isolated, not only from what they call and relevant bodies of (p. 10), but scholars in this area are also isolated from each other and each other's work. This troubling finding about our intellectual isolation conjures up the image that we are an isolate on a sociometric map that is comprised of important and relevant bodies of literature and fields of study. The problem with our position on this map, our isolation, is self evident-by being isolated we are out of the intellectual mainstream where ideas are exchanged, research agendas are set, and theories are tested. From our position at the margins of intellectual life, we have limited visibility and little to no ability to exert influence on the agenda that is set, the ideas that are exchanged, or the theories being tested. We lack important linkages to other areas of knowledge such as the social or behavioral sciences or management sciences and we are neither informed by, nor do we inform those relevant bodies of literature and fields of study. Lacking these linkages, we initiate few conversations beyond and among ourselves and when we do engage in conversations, our audience is very small, indeed. If Samdahl and Kelly's findings accurately capture our position, then one of our most important challenges is to change our position on this map; to become more centrally located, and presumably then, more connected with important bodies of knowledge and other scholars who examine leisure. The authors offer us a glimpse at an important reason why we are intellectually isolated. When they discuss outside research on leisure (research conducted by non-leisure scholars), they state that this research addresses leisure and recreation within the context the family, health, urban planning, culture, and the economy O but most [articles] have little relevance to leisure (p. 10). This statement infers two crucial indictments of leisure researchers and practitioners; first, that leisure researchers do not examine leisure as a part of those important contexts, and that perhaps, as a result, we examine leisure from a non-holistic, compartmentalized perspective. To understand leisure better, we take it out of its context and hold it up to the light to examine its parts and systems and possible meanings. In doing so, all of the relationships and intricacies between leisure and its context are torn or altered. What we end up with, then, is an understanding of leisure in isolation of context and meaning; stripped bare of the family, of health, urban planning, culture, and the economy. The second indictment inferred in Samdahl and Kelly's statement is that practitioners also view leisure in that same mechanistic, discrete way. When societal factors such as family, health, and environments in which people live have little relevance to a practitioner, is not the practitioner viewing leisure as separate from other pertinent community and societal factors? While I do not believe that this second inference is true, perhaps what Samdahl and Kelly mean is that practitioners are looking for technical assistance when they read journals. The study conducted by Jordan and Roland (1999) offers some insight to this question and is discussed in the next section. Jordan and Roland (1999) report equally troubling findings from their study of differences that exist between academics and practitioners on the frequency of reading research and attitudes toward research. Their findings show that between 61% to 86% of all respondents in their study, both academics and practitioners, rarely or never read a research journal. While this finding may be influenced by a small sample that does not represent the population from which it was drawn, it tells us that leisure research exerts little to no impact on advancing the profession or influencing professional practice, at least via research journals. …

Polifonía del signo en Saussure: los Anagramas y el Curso de lingüística general

Ferdinand de Saussure dedicated a three year period to the study of what he called «anagrams in Indoeuropean poetry». After detailed analysis of several hundred poems, he discovered that in classical Latin, Greek, Vedic and even Germanic verse, the poets had intentionally given their text a double reading: the verse sounds, in addition to being linearly employed in the service of higher, grammatical units, appeared to be invested with their own semantic task, to give emphasis to the names of the central characters featured in the plot of the poem. This paper pretends to show the relationship between the ideas presented in Saussure's Anagram Notebooks and those found in his contemporary lessons on General Linguistics, such as sign linearity and linguistic relevance of syntagmatic composition. The links demonstrate the coherence of his thought and his wide philological interests, which contradicts the generally held belief that Saussure's anagram studies represent nothing more than a diversion of no real significance, developed in intellectual isolation from his true academic pursuits.

Ideology, Methodology, and Context

The use of survey research has expanded dramatically in the Russian Federation, with mixed results in terms of accuracy and methodological practice. This article offers a preliminary summary of developments in survey research in the Russian Federation, highlighting the methodological and cultural difficulties associated with the transmission of Western-style survey research to the social reality of the Russian Federation. Ideological pressure, intellectual isolation, and emphasis on making surveys politically palatable led to a unique situation for the development of survey methodologies within the former Soviet Union. Insights from interviews with 20 Russian and American scholars highlight problems in cross-cultural collaboration in the post-Soviet context in terms of communication, ownership, training, and sampling. International collaboration has not yet reached its potential in terms of assisting the further development of existing sampling practices, data access norms, and interviewer preparation in the Russian Federation.

:Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes

Quentin Skinner presents a fundamental reappraisal of the political theory of Hobbes. Using, for the first time, the full range of manuscript as well as printed sources, it documents an entirely new view of Hobbes's intellectual development, and re-examines the shift from a humanist to a scientific culture in European moral and political thought. By examining Hobbes's philosophy against the background of his humanist education, Professor Skinner rescues this most difficult and challenging of political philosophers from the intellectual isolation in which he is so often discussed. This book presents a splendid exemplification of the 'Cambridge' contextual approach to the study of intellectual history with which Professor Skinner himself is especially associated. It will be of interest and importance to a wide range of scholars in history, philosophy, politics, and literary theory. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474.