霍布斯，1588年生：于英国，卒于1679，是西方哲学史上最重要的政治哲学家之一。作为克伦威尔同时代的人，他对于国家和法律的根本问题进行了精深的思考。主要著作有《利维坦》、《论公民》等。他的《利维坦》具有非凡的逻辑性和想像力，使政治哲学得到了一种逻辑严密的系统发挥，成为经世名著。

De Cive is the first full expositon of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes,the greatest English political philosper.Professors Tuck and Siverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation sice 1651,a rendition long thought to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself.

On the Citizen is written in a clear,straightforward,expository style,and in many ways offers students a more digestible account of Hobbes's political thought than the Leviathan itself.This new transltaion is both accurate and accessible,and is itself a significant schology,a bebliography and an expository introduction.Throughout,the editors have emphasized consistency in the translation and usage of Hobbes's basic conceptual vocabulary,trspceting Hobbes's own concern for accurate definition of tens.

RICHARD TUCK IS Professor of Govenment at Harvard University and a Fellow of Jesus College,Canbridge.He is the author of many books and articles,including the volume on Hobbes in the Oxford Pxfod Pastmasters series 1989,and he has previously edited Hobbes:Leviathan for the Cambridge Texts series.

MICHAEL SIVERTHORNE is Associate Professor in the Department of History at McGill University.He has published widely on the history of ideas,and has previously translated for the Canmbridge Texts series Pufendaf:On the Duty of Man and Cizen Accrding to Nanral Law(1991).