The message of this book is that Hobbes, and not Descartes, was the first to develop a specifically modern philosophy. The manifestion of modern subjectivity in Hobbes's work is expressed for the first time in a systematic development from perception up to political action. The author shows how, based on a mechanistic ontology and natural philosophy, Hobbes tried in vain to develop a human self-understanding and how this yielded an epistemological skepticism whose outcome for political philosophy was political absolutism.
»The author has performed an extensive and thorough reading of the published works of Thomas Hobbes, and I am really impressed at how he consequently develops his own interpretation of Hobbes [...] Esfeld has produced an original interpretation of Hobbes' works and a highly sophisticated piece of systematic philosophy.« Bettina Wahrig-Schmidt, Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci.