Philosophy › Reason, experience & Enlightenment › The social contract
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
1588–1679· Philosopher· Politics, society & justice
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
English philosopher whose Leviathan (1651) argued that people need an all-powerful sovereign to escape a war of all against all.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: without government, life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'. Reasoning: people are roughly equal, competitive and afraid, so with no common power each strikes first. Rational people therefore agree to give up their right to everything and obey one sovereign, the 'Leviathan'. He wrote amid the English Civil War (1642–51). He was also a materialist: everything, including thought, is matter in motion. Main objection: it trades the danger of chaos for the danger of tyranny.
Why it matters
He grounded political authority in self-interest and consent rather than divine right, setting the problem Locke and Rousseau tried to solve.
Legacy and sources
Leviathan, De Cive (1642) and his objections to Descartes' Meditations survive. He lived to 91; Oxford University condemned and burned his political books in 1683.
Still debated
Scholars disagree on whether he was privately an atheist, and on how far a sovereign may go before subjects may rightly resist.
Connections (4)
▸Legalism: rule by law and punishment is often compared with Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanDebated
The connection
Chinese Legalists such as Han Fei argued that people are self-interested, so order needs a strong ruler, clear laws, and certain rewards and punishments. Hobbes reached a similar conclusion from a similar premise nearly 1,900 years later. The link is a parallel, not an influence.
When and how
Han Fei wrote before his death in 233 BC, though the Han Feizi took its final form later; Leviathan was written in exile in Paris and published in London in 1651.
How sure are we?
Comparative philosophers note the shared view of human nature and strong rule; there is no evidence Hobbes knew any Chinese text.
Debates and open questions
How deep the likeness goes is debated: Hobbes grounds the sovereign in subjects' consent and safety, while Legalists served the ruler's power with no idea of consent.
▸Is human nature good or bad? was answered pessimistically by Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanMostly agreed
The connection
Hobbes took the bleak side of the old debate: humans are driven by fear, competition and desire for glory. Without a common power to hold them in awe, these drives produce a 'war of every man against every man', which is why he concluded people need an absolute sovereign.
When and how
Leviathan, Chapter 13, written in Paris during the English Civil War and published in London in 1651.
How sure are we?
Hobbes states it directly in Leviathan, and points to everyday evidence: people lock their doors and chests even at home, among their own family.
Debates and open questions
Some scholars say Hobbes saw human nature as neutral rather than evil, since he says passions are not sins in themselves; the danger comes from the situation.
▸Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince influenced Thomas Hobbes, LeviathanMostly agreed
The connection
Machiavelli described politics as it is, not as it should be, treating power and security as a ruler's real concerns. Hobbes shared that hard-headed realism, starting from fear and self-interest rather than virtue or divine order, but turned it into a systematic theory of why subjects should obey.
When and how
The Prince, written in Florence in 1513 and published in 1532; Leviathan, London, 1651.
How sure are we?
Historians place them in one realist tradition, but Hobbes rarely cites Machiavelli, so direct influence is inferred rather than documented.
Debates and open questions
How much Hobbes drew on Machiavelli is debated; some see Thucydides, whom Hobbes translated in 1629, as the bigger influence.
▸Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan founded the modern theory of The social contractWell documented
The connection
Hobbes gave the first full modern version: imagine people without government, in a 'state of nature' that is a war of all against all. To escape it, each agrees with the others to hand their power to a sovereign who keeps the peace. Authority comes from consent and self-interest, not divine right.
When and how
Leviathan, written in exile in Paris and published in London in 1651, two years after Charles I's execution; earlier versions appear in Elements of Law (1640) and De Cive (1642).
How we know
Locke and Rousseau framed their theories against Hobbes, and historians of political thought treat Leviathan as the founding text of modern contract theory.
Debates and open questions
Contract ideas existed earlier, in Plato's Republic, medieval thought and Grotius; how new Hobbes's version truly was is a matter of emphasis.