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What it argues
Leviathan, published in 1651 in the aftermath of the English Civil War, is one of the founding texts of modern political philosophy. Hobbes wrote it under the shadow of a society that had just executed its king and descended into years of violent conflict. His central question was stark: why should anyone accept political authority at all? His answer, built on a materialist account of human nature and rational self-interest, established a framework for thinking about government, sovereignty, and legitimacy that still shapes political theory today.
Hobbes begins with psychology. Human beings are, at bottom, driven by appetite and aversion, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Without government, this produces the "state of nature" — a condition of perpetual competition and insecurity where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." This is not a historical claim but a logical one: remove coercive authority and the result is war of all against all. No one is powerful enough to be secure, so even the strongest has reason to fear.
What it gets right
- 1.
Without political authority, the state of nature produces a war of all against all, in which there is no industry, no culture, no society — and life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
- 2.
Human beings are rational calculators of self-interest. It is this rationality, not virtue, that drives them to contract into political society — any order is preferable to the insecurity of the state of nature.
- 3.
The social contract authorizes a sovereign — person or assembly — to exercise power on behalf of all subjects. Crucially, Hobbes argues this authorization must be nearly absolute and irrevocable.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher whose work on political theory, geometry, and the philosophy of mind made him one of the most important and controversial thinkers of the seventeenth century. He was educated at Oxford and spent much of his career in the households of noble families, giving him access to the political debates of his era. His other major works include De Cive and a translation of Thucydides. He lived through the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration, and his political views were shaped by each phase of that turbulent period.
