Hobbes' extreme political views have commanded so much attention that they have eclipsed his work on language and mind, and on reasoning, personhood, and group formation. But this work is of immense interest in itself, as Philip Pettit shows in "Made with Words", and it critically shapes Hobbes' political philosophy. Pettit argues that it was Hobbes, not later thinkers like Rousseau, who invented the invention of language thesis - the idea that language is a cultural innovation that transformed the human mind. The invention, in Hobbes' story, is a double-edged sword. It enables human beings to reason, commit themselves as persons, and incorporate in groups.But it also allows them to agonize about the future and about their standing relative to one another; it takes them out of the Eden of animal silence and into a life of inescapable conflict - the state of nature. Still, if language leads into this wasteland, according to Hobbes, it can also lead out. It can enable people to establish a commonwealth where the words of law and morality have a common, enforceable sense, and where people can invoke the sanctions of an absolute sovereign to give their words to one another in credible commitment and contract. Written by one of today's leading philosophers, "Made with Words" is both an original reinterpretation and a clear and lively introduction to Hobbes' thought.

菲利普·佩迪特（Philip Pettit），著名哲学家、政治学家，“当代共和主义最重要的哲学阐释者”。1945年生于爱尔兰，现任教于美国普林斯顿大学，讲授政治理论与哲学，任劳伦斯?洛克菲勒政治学与人类价值讲席教授（Laurance S．Rockefeller Univ ersity Professor of Politics and Human Values）。

主要著作：

《规则、理性与规范》（Rules，Reasons，andNorms）

《共和主义》（Republicanism）

《共同的心智》（TheCommonMind）

与杰弗里·布伦南（GeofireyBrennan）合著的《尊重的经济学》（The Economy of Esteem）

论文集《共同的心智：菲利普·佩迪特的哲学主题》（Common Minds：Themes from the Philosophy of Philip Pettit）