Leviathan Summary

Thomas Hobbes’s *Leviathan* (1651) is a foundational work of political philosophy written during the upheavals of the English Civil War. Hobbes argues that human beings, driven by competition, diffidence, and glory, exist in a natural state of perpetual war of all against all, where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” To escape this condition, rational individuals covenant to surrender their natural rights to a sovereign authority—the Leviathan—who holds absolute power to maintain peace. The book’s first part, “Of Man,” develops a mechanistic psychology: sensations arise from motion in the body, and voluntary actions spring from appetites and aversions. Hobbes introduces the “state of nature” thought experiment and the laws of nature, which are rational precepts commanding seekers of peace to lay down rights and keep covenants. The second part, “Of Commonwealth,” explains how a multitude becomes one person through authorization, distinguishing sovereignty by institution from sovereignty by acquisition. Hobbes defends undivided sovereign power—whether monarchical or assembly—as necessary to prevent civil war, while allowing subjects liberty in areas the sovereign does not regulate. Part three, “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” reinterprets Scripture to subordinate religious authority to civil authority, arguing that the sovereign alone determines public worship and doctrine. Part four, “Of the Kingdom of Darkness,” attacks errors and superstitions that undermine obedience, including mistaken readings of Scripture and Catholic claims of papal power. Hobbes closes with a review and conclusion, reminding readers that his doctrine serves peace and that sovereign power, though absolute, leaves room for self-preservation. The work’s materialist metaphysics, social contract theory, and defense of the Leviathan state remain central to modern political thought.