Books with author Thomas Hobbes

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Considered by many to be among the greatest works of political philosophy, especially in the English language, "Leviathan" is Hobbes' book, published in 1651, which outlines his theories on an ideal state and its creation. The structure of a society and a legitimate government, as he reasons, is perhaps the earliest example of social contract theory, which outlines the need of rule by an absolute sovereign. In Hobbes' time, the political and social structures of England were in a changing and uncertain state, which explains to some extent his ideas on the need of a strong central government in the face of a chaotic civil war. Hobbes believes that the prospect of peace this system would provide is worth giving up some of the natural freedom of man, who is essentially a being of individual fears and desires. This brings about his discussion of dissident forces, which threaten the commonwealth, itself the monstrous Leviathan at risk of war. A continually challenging work with reasoning that has stood the test of time, "Leviathan" has in some part contributed to the advancement of the modern world.

Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong, undivided government. After lengthy discussion with Thomas Hobbes, the Parisian Abraham Bosse created the etching for the book's famous frontispiece in the géometrique style which Bosse himself had refined. It is similar in organisation to the frontispiece of Hobbes' De Cive (1642), created by Jean Matheus. The frontispiece has two main elements, of which the upper part is by far the more striking. In it, a giant crowned figure is seen emerging from the landscape, clutching a sword and a crosier, beneath a quote from the Book of Job—"Non est potestas Super Terram quae Comparetur ei. Iob. 41 . 24" ("There is no power on earth to be compared to him. Job 41 . 24")—linking the figure to the monster of that book. (Due to disagreements over the precise location of the chapters and verses when they were divided in the Late Middle Ages, the verse Hobbes quotes is usually given as Job 41:33 in modern Christian translations into English, Job 41:25 in the Masoretic text, Septuagint, and the Luther Bible; it is Iob 41:24 in the Vulgate.) The torso and arms of the figure are composed of over three hundred persons, in the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo; all are facing inwards with just the giant's head having visible features. (A manuscript of Leviathan created for Charles II in 1651 has notable differences – a different main head but significantly the body is also composed of many faces, all looking outwards from the body and with a range of expressions.) The lower portion is a triptych, framed in a wooden border. The centre form contains the title on an ornate curtain. The two sides reflect the sword and crosier of the main figure – earthly power on the left and the powers of the church on the right. Each side element reflects the equivalent power – castle to church, crown to mitre, cannon to excommunication, weapons to logic, and the battlefield to the religious courts. The giant holds the symbols of both sides, reflecting the union of secular, and spiritual in the sovereign, but the construction of the torso also makes the figure the state.

Nature (the art whereby God hath made and governes the world) is by the art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an Artificial Animal. For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs, the begining whereof is in some principall part within; why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheeles as doth a watch) have an artificiall life? For what is the Heart, but a Spring; and the Nerves, but so many Strings; and the Joynts, but so many Wheeles, giving motion to the whole Body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further, imitating that Rationall and most excellent worke of Nature, Man. For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body; The Magistrates, and other Officers of Judicature and Execution, artificiall Joynts; Reward and Punishment (by which fastned to the seat of the Soveraignty, every joynt and member is moved to performe his duty) are the Nerves, that do the same in the Body Naturall; The Wealth and Riches of all the particular members, are the Strength; Salus Populi (the Peoples Safety) its Businesse; Counsellors, by whom all things needfull for it to know, are suggested unto it, are the Memory; Equity and Lawes, an artificiall Reason and Will; Concord, Health; Sedition, Sicknesse; and Civill War, Death. Lastly, the Pacts and Covenants, by which the parts of this Body Politique were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that Fiat, or the Let Us Make Man, pronounced by God in the Creation.

Thomas Hobbes took a new look at the ways in which society should function, and he ended up formulating the concept of political science. His crowning achievement, Leviathan, remains among the greatest works in the history of ideas. Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures as well as methods of science were in flux and open to interpretation, Leviathan played an essential role in the development of the modern world.

Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign—or "Leviathan"—to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the anarchic freedom he believed human beings would otherwise experience. This worldview shocked many of Hobbes's contemporaries, and his work was publicly burnt for sedition and blasphemy when it was first published. But in his rejection of Aristotle's view of man as a naturally social being, and in his painstaking analysis of the ways in which society can and should function, Hobbes opened up a whole new world of political science. Based on the original 1651 text, this edition incorporates Hobbes's own corrections, while also retaining the original spelling and punctuation, to read with vividness and clarity. C. B. Macpherson's introduction elucidates one of the most fascinating works of modern philosophy for the general reader.