Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed a remarkable revival of interest in the political thought of the early modern period. Undoubtedly one main spur to this revival has been the work of C. B. Macpherson; in The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism Macpherson argued that the founders of the liberal tradition were in reality enthusiastic apologists for an emerging market society. Unlike many recent scholars Vaughan does not seek to refute Macpherson; on the contrary, he explicitly aims to go beyond him by showing how "the founders of modern political philosophy consciously appropriated the principles of ancient hedonism and transformed them into political principles, making hedonism the major motive force in the rise of the modern liberal-democratic state". Vaughan is, however, a little unwise to invite comparison with Macpherson, for his book has none of the latter's brilliance and incisiveness. Nor, unfortunately, does it possess the scholarly depth and philosophical acumen to be found in the work of recent writers such as Richard Tuck and James Tully.