As Etienne Balibar points out in the recent French edition "The constant return of Schmitt to the problems posed by Hobbes' book, the constant alternation of the way in which he evaluates the conflicts of the tendencies that manifest themselves in it, does not mean that Schmitt invokes Hobbes, either to secure a position in the struggles of factions, ideology and prestige, or to render [...] the historical depth and aura that his affinity with a "solitary" thought can provide. Rather, it means that Schmitt will desperately seek in Hobbes, within the framework of a writing experience, [...] the possibility of answering questions that his theory did not know or could not solve."

The edition includes useful translational and factual comments and is one of the first books in the new series "Classical Small".