The course explores Hobbes' theory of sovereignty, focusing on the relation between its concept of humanity, law and the sovereign's ultimate power to enforce and resolve the "war of all against all". Starting with a reading of Hobbes' Leviathan, the course then shifts to the critiques of Hobbes by Kant, who challenges the Hobbesian view with his emphasis on autonomy, human dignity and "cosmopolitan state" -- all the more to readings in Schmitt, Strauss and current thinkers. These reflections will be inevitably taught with a nod to the current state of the world.