EXCERPTS FROM LEVIATHAN

- By Thomas Hobbes
Font Size
English philosopher (1588–1679) "Hobbes" redirects here. For other people called Hobbes, see Hobbes (disambiguation). For the Dean of Exeter, see Thomas Hobbes (priest). For those of a similar name, see Thomas Hobbs. Thomas HobbesPortrait by John Michael Wright, c. 1669–70Born(1588-04-05)5 April 1588Westport, Wiltshire, EnglandDied4 December 1679(1679-12-04) (aged 91)Derbyshire, EnglandEducationMagdalen Hall, OxfordSt John's College, Cambridge (BA)Notable work De Cive (1647) Leviathan (1651) De Corpore (1655) Behemoth (1681) Era17th-century philosophyRegionWestern philosophySchool British empiricism Classical realism Corpuscularianism[1] Descriptive egoism Determinism English Renaissance[2] Materialism[3] Legal positivism Natural law Nominalism[3] Social contract Main interestsPolitical philosophy, history, ethics, geometryNotable ideasSocial contractState of natureBellum omnium contra omnes Signature Thomas Hobbes (/hɒbz/ HOBZ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.[4] He is considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.[5][6] Hobbes was born prematurely due to his mother's fear of the Spanish Armada. His early life, overshadowed by his father's departure following a fight, was taken under the care of his wealthy uncle. Hobbes's academic journey began in Westport, leading him to Oxford University, where he was exposed to classical literature and mathematics. He then graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1608. He became a tutor to the Cavendish family, which connected him to intellectual circles and initiated his extensive travels across Europe. These experiences, including meetings with key figures like Galileo, shaped his intellectual development. After returning to England from France in 1641, Hobbes witnessed the destruction and brutality of the English Civil War from 1642 to 1651 between Parliamentarians and Royalists, which heavily influenced his advocacy for governance by an absolute sovereign in Leviathan, as the solution to human conflict and societal breakdown. Aside from social contract theory, Leviathan also popularized ideas such as the state of nature ("war of all against all") and laws of nature. His other major works include the trilogy De Cive (1642), De Corpore (1655), as well as the posthumous work Behemoth (1681). Hobbes contributed to a diverse array of fields, including history, jurisprudence, geometry, optics, theology, classical translations, ethics, as well as philosophy in general, marking him as a polymath. Despite controversies and challenges, including accusations of atheism and contentious debates with contemporaries, Hobbes's work profoundly influenced the understanding of political structure and human nature. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Thomas Hobbes was born on 5 April 1588 (Old Style), in Westport, now part of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England. Having been born prematurely when his mother heard of the coming invasion of the Spanish Armada, Hobbes later reported that "my mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear."[7] Hobbes had a brother, Edmund, about two years older, as well as a sister, Anne. Although Thomas Hobbes's childhood is unknown to a large extent, as is his mother's name,[8] it is known that Hobbes's father, Thomas Sr., was the vicar of both Charlton and Westport. Hobbes's father was uneducated, according to John Aubrey, Hobbes's biographer, and he "disesteemed learning."[9] Thomas Sr. was involved in a fight with the local clergy outside his church, forcing him to leave London. As a result, the family was left in the care of Thomas Sr.'s older brother, Francis, a wealthy glove manufacturer with no family of his own. Education[edit] Hobbes was educated at Westport church from age four, went to the Malmesbury school, and then to a private school kept by a young man named Robert Latimer, a graduate of the University of Oxford.[10] Hobbes was a good pupil, and between 1601 and 1602 he went to Magdalen Hall, the predecessor to Hertford College, Oxford, where he was taught scholastic logic and mathematics.[11][12][13] The principal, John Wilkinson, was a Puritan and had some influence on Hobbes. Before going up to Oxford, Hobbes translated Euripides' Medea from Greek into Latin verse.[9] At university, Thomas Hobbes appears to have followed his own curriculum as he was little attracted by the scholastic learning.[10] Leaving Oxford, Hobbes completed his B.A. degree by incorporation at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1608.[14] He was recommended by Sir James Hussey, his master at Magdalen, as tutor to William, the son of William Cavendish,[10] Baron of Hardwick (and later Earl of Devonshire), and began a lifelong connection with that family.[15] William Cavendish was elevated to the peerage on his father's death in 1626, holding it for two years before his death in 1628. His son, also William, likewise became the 3rd Earl of Devonshire. Hobbes served as a tutor and secretary to both men. The 1st Earl's younger brother, Charles Cavendish, had two sons who were patrons of Hobbes. The elder son, William Cavendish, later 1st Duke of Newcastle, was a leading supporter of Charles I during the Civil War in which he personally financed an army for the king, having been governor to the Prince of Wales, Charles James, Duke of Cornwall. It was to this William Cavendish that Hobbes dedicated his Elements of Law.[9] Hobbes became a companion to the younger William Cavendish and they both took part in a grand tour of Europe between 1610 and 1615. Hobbes was exposed to European scientific and critical methods during the tour, in contrast to the scholastic philosophy that he had learned in Oxford. In Venice, Hobbes made the acquaintance of Fulgenzio Micanzio, an associate of Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian scholar and statesman.[9] His scholarly efforts at the time were aimed at a careful study of classic Greek and Latin authors, the outcome of which was, in 1628, his great translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War,[10] the first translation of that work into English from a Greek manuscript. It has been argued that three of the discourses in the 1620 publication known as Horae Subsecivae: Observations and Discourses also represent the work of Hobbes from this period.[16] Although he did associate with literary figures like Ben Jonson and briefly worked as Francis Bacon's amanuensis, translating several of his Essays into Latin,[9] he did not extend his efforts into philosophy until after 1629. In June 1628, his employer Cavendish, then the Earl of Devonshire, died of the plague, and his widow, the countess Christian, dismissed Hobbes.[17][18] In Paris (1629–1637)[edit] Hobbes soon (in 1629) found work as a tutor to Gervase Clifton, the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, mostly spent in Paris, until November 1630.[19] Thereafter, he again found work with the Cavendish family, tutoring William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, the eldest son of his previous pupil. Over the next seven years, as well as tutoring, he expanded his own knowledge of philosophy, awakening in him curiosity over key philosophic debates. He visited Galileo Galilei in Florence while he was under house arrest upon condemnation, in 1636, and was later a regular debater in philosophic groups in Paris, held together by Marin Mersenne.[17] Hobbes's first area of study was an interest in the physical doctrine of motion and physical momentum. Despite his interest in this phenomenon, he disdained experimental work as in physics. He went on to conceive the system of thought to the elaboration of which he would devote his life. His scheme was first to work out, in a separate treatise, a systematic doctrine of body, showing how physical phenomena were universally explicable in terms of motion, at least as motion or mechanical action was then understood. He then singled out Man from the realm of Nature and plants. Then, in another treatise, he showed what specific bodily motions were involved in the production of the peculiar phenomena of sensation, knowledge, affections and passions whereby Man came into relation with Man. Finally, he considered, in his crowning treatise, how Men were moved to enter into society, and argued how this must be regulated if people were not to fall back into "brutishness and misery". Thus he proposed to unite the separate phenomena of Body, Man, and the State.[17] In England (1637–1641)[edit] Hobbes came back home from Paris, in 1637, to a country riven with discontent, which disrupted him from the orderly execution of his philosophic plan.[17] However, by the end of the Short Parliament in 1640, he had written a short treatise called The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic. It was not published and only circulated as a manuscript among his acquaintances. A pirated version, however, was published about ten years later. Although it seems that much of The Elements of Law was composed before the sitting of the Short Parliament, there are polemical pieces of the work that clearly mark the influences of the rising political crisis. Nevertheless, many (though not all) elements of Hobbes's political thought were unchanged between The Elements of Law and Leviathan, which demonstrates that the events of the English Civil War had little effect on his contractarian methodology. However, the arguments in Leviathan were modified from The Elements of Law when it came to the necessity of consent in creating political obligation: Hobbes wrote in The Elements of Law that Patrimonial kingdoms were not necessarily formed by the consent of the governed, while in Leviathan he argued that they were. This was perhaps a reflection either of Hobbes's thoughts about the engagement controversy or of his reaction to treatises published by Patriarchalists, such as Sir Robert Filmer, between 1640 and 1651.[citation needed] When in November 1640 the Long Parliament succeeded the Short, Hobbes felt that he was in disfavour due to the circulation of his treatise and fled to Paris. He did not return for 11 years. In Paris, he rejoined the coterie around Mersenne and wrote a critique of the Meditations on First Philosophy of Descartes, which was printed as third among the sets of "Objections" appended, with "Replies" from Descartes, in 1641. A different set of remarks on other works by Descartes succeeded only in ending all correspondence between the two.[20] Hobbes also extended his own works in a way, working on the third section, De Cive, which was finished in November 1641. Although it was initially only circulated privately, it was well received, and included lines of argumentation that were repeated a decade later in Leviathan. He then returned to hard work on the first two sections of his work and published little except a short treatise on optics (Tractatus opticus), included in the collection of scientific tracts published by Mersenne as Cogitata physico-mathematica in 1644. He built a good reputation in philosophic circles and in 1645 was chosen with Descartes, Gilles de Roberval and others to referee the controversy between John Pell and Longomontanus over the problem of squaring the circle.[20] Civil War Period (1642–1651)[edit] The English Civil War began in 1642, and when the royalist cause began to decline in mid-1644, many royalists came to Paris and were known to Hobbes.[20] This revitalised Hobbes's political interests, and the De Cive was republished and more widely distributed. The printing began in 1646 by Samuel de Sorbiere through the Elsevier press in Amsterdam with a new preface and some new notes in reply to objections.[20] In 1647, Hobbes took up a position as mathematical instructor to the young Charles, Prince of Wales, who had come to Paris from Jersey around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles went to Holland.[20] Frontispiece from De Cive (1642) The company of the exiled royalists led Hobbes to produce Leviathan, which set forth his theory of civil government in relation to the political crisis resulting from the war. Hobbes compared the State to a monster (leviathan) composed of men, created under pressure of human needs and dissolved by civil strife due to human passions. The work closed with a general "Review and Conclusion", in response to the war, which answered the question: Does a subject have the right to change allegiance when a former sovereign's power to protect is irrevocably lost?[20] During the years of composing Leviathan, Hobbes remained in or near Paris. In 1647, he suffered a near-fatal illness that disabled him for six months.[20] On recovering, he resumed his literary task and completed it by 1650. Meanwhile, a translation of De Cive was being produced; scholars disagree about whether it was Hobbes who translated it.[21] In 1650, a pirated edition of The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic was published.[22] It was divided into two small volumes: Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie; and De corpore politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politick.[21] In 1651, the translation of De Cive was published under the title Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society.[23] Also, the printing of the greater work proceeded, and finally appeared in mid-1651, titled Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common Wealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil. It had a famous title-page engraving depicting a crowned giant above the waist towering above hills overlooking a landscape, holding a sword and a crozier and made up of tiny human figures. The work had immediate impact.[21] Soon, Hobbes was more lauded and decried than any other thinker of his time.[21] The first effect of its publication was to sever his link with the exiled royalists, who might well have killed him.[21] The secularist spirit of his book greatly angered both Anglicans and French Catholics.[21] Hobbes appealed to the revolutionary English government for protection and fled back to London in winter 1651.[21] After his submission to the Council of State, he was allowed to subside into private life[21] in Fetter Lane.[citation needed] Later life[edit] Thomas Hobbes. Line engraving by William Faithorne, 1668 In 1658, Hobbes published the final section of his philosophical system, completing the scheme he had planned more than 20 years before. De Homine consisted for the most part of an elaborate theory of vision. The remainder of the treatise dealt partially with some of the topics more fully treated in the Human Nature and the Leviathan. In addition to publishing some controversial writings on mathematics, including disciplines like geometry, Hobbes also continued to produce philosophical works.[21] From the time of the Restoration, he acquired a new prominence; "Hobbism" became a byword for all that respectable society ought to denounce. The young king, Hobbes's former pupil, now Charles II, remembered Hobbes and called him to the court to grant him a pension of £100.[24] The king was important in protecting Hobbes when, in 1666, the House of Commons introduced a bill against atheism and profaneness. That same year, on 17 October 1666, it was ordered that the committee to which the bill was referred "should be empowered to receive information touching such books as tend to atheism, blasphemy and profaneness... in particular... the book of Mr. Hobbes called the Leviathan."[25] Hobbes was terrified at the prospect of being labelled a heretic, and proceeded to burn some of his compromising papers. At the same time, he examined the actual state of the law of heresy. The results of his investigation were first announced in three short Dialogues added as an Appendix to his Latin translation of Leviathan, published in Amsterdam in 1668. In this appendix, Hobbes aimed to show that, since the High Court of Commission had been put down, there remained no court of heresy at all to which he was amenable, and that nothing could be heresy except opposing the Nicene Creed, which, he maintained, Leviathan did not do.[26] The only consequence that came of the bill was that Hobbes could never thereafter publish anything in England on subjects relating to human conduct. The 1668 edition of his works was printed in Amsterdam because he could not obtain the censor's licence for its publication in England. Other writings were not made public until after his death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to the year 1662. For some time, Hobbes was not even allowed to respond, whatever his enemies tried. Despite this, his reputation abroad was formidable.[26] Hobbes spent the last four or five years of his life with his patron, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, at the family's Chatsworth House estate. He had been a friend of the family since 1608 when he first tutored an earlier William Cavendish.[27] After Hobbes's death, many of his manuscripts would be found at Chatsworth House.[28] His final works were an autobiography in Latin verse in 1672, and a translation of four books of the Odyssey into "rugged" English rhymes that in 1673 led to a complete translation of both Iliad and Odyssey in 1675.[26] Death[edit] Tomb of Thomas Hobbes in St John the Baptist's Church, Ault Hucknall, in Derbyshire In October 1679 Hobbes suffered a bladder disorder, and then a paralytic stroke, from which he died on 4 December 1679, aged 91,[26][29] at Hardwick Hall, owned by the Cavendish family.[28] His last words were said to have been "A great leap in the dark", uttered in his final conscious moments.[30] His body was interred in St John the Baptist's Church, Ault Hucknall, in Derbyshire.[31] Political theory[edit] Hobbes, influenced by contemporary scientific ideas, had intended for his political theory to be a quasi-geometrical system, in which the conclusions followed inevitably from the premises.[9] The main practical conclusion of Hobbes's political theory is that state or society cannot be secure unless at the disposal of an absolute sovereign. From this follows the view that no individual can hold rights of property against the sovereign, and that the sovereign may therefore take the goods of its subjects without their consent. This particular view owes its significance to it being first developed in the 1630s when Charles I had sought to raise revenues without the consent of Parliament, and therefore of his subjects.[9] Hobbes rejected one of the most famous theses of Aristotle's politics, namely that human beings are naturally suited to life in a polis and do not fully realize their natures until they exercise the role of citizen.[32] It is perhaps also important to note that Hobbes extrapolated his mechanistic understanding of nature into the social and political realm, making him a progenitor of the term 'social structure.' Leviathan[edit] Main article: Leviathan (Hobbes book) Frontispiece of Leviathan In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments and creating an objective science of morality.[33] Much of the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central authority to avoid the evil of discord and civil war. Beginning from a mechanistic understanding of human beings and their passions, Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the state of nature. In that state, each person would have a right, or license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes). The description contains what has been called one of the best-known passages in English philosophy, which describes the natural state humankind would be in, were it not for political community:[34] In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.[35] In such states, people fear death and lack both the things necessary to commodious living, and the hope of being able to obtain them. So, in order to avoid it, people accede to a social contract and establish a civil society. According to Hobbes, society is a population and a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society cede some right[36] for the sake of protection. Power exercised by this authority cannot be resisted, because the protector's sovereign power derives from individuals' surrendering their own sovereign power for protection. The individuals are thereby the authors of all decisions made by the sovereign,[37] "he that complaineth of injury from his sovereign complaineth that whereof he himself is the author, and therefore ought not to accuse any man but himself, no nor himself of injury because to do injury to one's self is impossible". There is no doctrine of separation of powers in Hobbes's discussion. He argues that any division of authority would lead to internal strife, jeopardizing the stability provided by an absolute sovereign.[38][39] According to Hobbes, the sovereign must control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers, even the words.[40] Opposition[edit] John Bramhall[edit] In 1654 a small treatise, Of Liberty and Necessity, directed at Hobbes, was published by Bishop John Bramhall.[21][41] Bramhall, a strong Arminian, had met and debated with Hobbes and afterwards wrote down his views and sent them privately to be answered in this form by Hobbes. Hobbes duly replied, but not for publication. However, a French acquaintance took a copy of the reply and published it with "an extravagantly laudatory epistle".[21] Bramhall countered in 1655, when he printed everything that had passed between them (under the title of A Defence of the True Liberty of Human Actions from Antecedent or Extrinsic Necessity).[21] In 1656, Hobbes was ready with The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, in which he replied "with astonishing force"[21] to the bishop. As perhaps the first clear exposition of the psychological doctrine of determinism, Hobbes's own two pieces were important in the history of the free-will controversy. The bishop returned to the charge in 1658 with Castigations of Mr Hobbes's Animadversions, and also included a bulky appendix entitled The Catching of Leviathan the Great Whale.[42] John Wallis[edit] Further information: Hobbes–Wallis controversy Hobbes opposed the existing academic arrangements, and assailed the system of the original universities in Leviathan. He went on to publish De Corpore, which contained not only tendentious views on mathematics but also an erroneous proof of the squaring of the circle. This all led mathematicians to target him for polemics and sparked John Wallis to become one of his most persistent opponents. From 1655, the publishing date of De Corpore, Hobbes and Wallis continued name-calling and bickering for nearly a quarter of a century, with Hobbes failing to admit his error to the end of his life.[43] After years of debate, the spat over proving the squaring of the circle gained such notoriety that it has become one of the most infamous feuds in mathematical history. Religious views[edit] The religious opinions of Hobbes remain controversial as many positions have been attributed to him and range from atheism to orthodox Christianity. In the Elements of Law, Hobbes provided a cosmological argument for the existence of God, saying that God is "the first cause of all causes".[44] Hobbes was accused of atheism by several contemporaries; Bramhall accused him of teachings that could lead to atheism. This was an important accusation, and Hobbes himself wrote, in his answer to Bramhall's The Catching of Leviathan, that "atheism, impiety, and the like are words of the greatest defamation possible".[45] Hobbes always defended himself from such accusations.[46] In more recent times also, much has been made of his religious views by scholars such as Richard Tuck and J. G. A. Pocock, but there is still widespread disagreement about the exact significance of Hobbes's unusual views on religion. As Martinich has pointed out, in Hobbes's time the term "atheist" was often applied to people who believed in God but not in divine providence, or to people who believed in God but also maintained other beliefs that were considered to be inconsistent with such belief or judged incompatible with orthodox Christianity. He says that this "sort of discrepancy has led to many errors in determining who was an atheist in the early modern period".[47] In this extended early modern sense of atheism, Hobbes did take positions that strongly disagreed with church teachings of his time. For example, he argued repeatedly that there are no incorporeal substances, and that all things, including human thoughts, and even God, heaven, and hell are corporeal, matter in motion. He argued that "though Scripture acknowledge spirits, yet doth it nowhere say, that they are incorporeal, meaning thereby without dimensions and quantity".[48] (In this view, Hobbes claimed to be following Tertullian.) Like John Locke, he also stated that true revelation can never disagree with human reason and experience,[49] although he also argued that people should accept revelation and its interpretations for the reason that they should accept the commands of their sovereign, in order to avoid war. While in Venice on tour, Hobbes made the acquaintance of Fulgenzio Micanzio, a close associate of Paolo Sarpi, who had written against the pretensions of the papacy to temporal power in response to the Interdict of Pope Paul V against Venice, which refused to recognise papal prerogatives. James I had invited both men to England in 1612. Micanzio and Sarpi had argued that God willed human nature, and that human nature indicated the autonomy of the state in temporal affairs. When he returned to England in 1615, William Cavendish maintained correspondence with Micanzio and Sarpi, and Hobbes translated the latter's letters from Italian, which were circulated among the Duke's circle.[9] Works[edit] 1602. Latin translation of Euripides' Medea (lost). 1620. "A Discourse of Tacitus", "A Discourse of Rome", and "A Discourse of Laws." In The Horae Subsecivae: Observation and Discourses.[50] 1626. "De Mirabilis Pecci, Being the Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire" (publ. 1636) – a poem on the Seven Wonders of the Peak 1629. Eight Books of the Peloponnese Warre, translation with an Introduction of Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1630. A Short Tract on First Principles.[51][52] Authorship doubtful, as this work is attributed by important critics to Robert Payne.[53] 1637. A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique[54] Molesworth edition title: The Whole Art of Rhetoric. Authorship probable: While Schuhmann (1998) firmly rejects the attribution of this work to Hobbes,[55] a preponderance of scholarship disagrees with Schuhmann's idiosyncratic assessment. Schuhmann disagrees with historian Quentin Skinner, who would come to agree with Schuhmann.[56][57] 1639. Tractatus opticus II (also known as Latin Optical Manuscript)[58][59] 1640. Elements of Law, Natural and Politic Initially circulated only in handwritten copies; without Hobbes's permission, the first printed edition would be in 1650. 1641. Objectiones ad Cartesii Meditationes de Prima Philosophia 3rd series of Objections 1642. Elementorum Philosophiae Sectio Tertia de Cive (Latin, 1st limited ed.). 1643. De Motu, Loco et Tempore[60] First edition (1973) with the title: Thomas White's De Mundo Examined 1644. Part of the "Praefatio to Mersenni Ballistica." In F. Marini Mersenni minimi Cogitata physico-mathematica. In quibus tam naturae quàm artis effectus admirandi certissimis demonstrationibus explicantur. 1644. "Opticae, liber septimus" (also known as Tractatus opticus I written in 1640). In Universae geometriae mixtaeque mathematicae synopsis, edited by Marin Mersenne. Molesworth edition (OL V, pp. 215–248) title: "Tractatus Opticus" 1646. A Minute or First Draught of the Optiques[61] Molesworth published only the dedication to Cavendish and the conclusion in EW VII, pp. 467–471. 1646. Of Liberty and Necessity (publ. 1654) Published without the permission of Hobbes 1647. Elementa Philosophica de Cive Second expanded edition with a new Preface to the Reader 1650. Answer to Sir William Davenant's Preface before Gondibert 1650. Human Nature: or The fundamental Elements of Policie Includes first thirteen chapters of The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic Published without Hobbes's authorisation 1650. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic (pirated ed.) Repackaged to include two parts: "Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie," ch. 14–19 of Elements, Part One (1640) "De Corpore Politico", Elements, Part Two (1640) 1651. Philosophicall Rudiments concerning Government and Society – English translation of De Cive[62] 1651. Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil 1654. Of Libertie and Necessitie, a Treatise 1655. De Corpore (in Latin) 1656. Elements of Philosophy, The First Section, Concerning Body – anonymous English translation of De Corpore 1656. Six Lessons to the Professor of Mathematics 1656. The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance – reprint of Of Libertie and Necessitie, a Treatise, with the addition of Bramhall's reply and Hobbes's reply to Bramahall's reply. 1657. Stigmai, or Marks of the Absurd Geometry, Rural Language, Scottish Church Politics, and Barbarisms of John Wallis 1658. Elementorum Philosophiae Sectio Secunda De Homine 1660. Examinatio et emendatio mathematicae hodiernae qualis explicatur in libris Johannis Wallisii 1661. Dialogus physicus, sive De natura aeris 1662. Problematica Physica English translation titled: Seven Philosophical Problems (1682) 1662. Seven Philosophical Problems, and Two Propositions of Geometry – published posthumously 1662. Mr. Hobbes Considered in his Loyalty, Religion, Reputation, and Manners. By way of Letter to Dr. Wallis – English autobiography 1666. De Principis & Ratiocinatione Geometrarum 1666. A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England (publ. 1681) 1668. Leviathan – Latin translation 1668. An answer to a book published by Dr. Bramhall, late bishop of Derry; called the Catching of the leviathan. Together with an historical narration concerning heresie, and the punishment thereof (publ. 1682) 1671. Three Papers Presented to the Royal Society Against Dr. Wallis. Together with Considerations on Dr. Wallis his Answer to them 1671. Rosetum Geometricum, sive Propositiones Aliquot Frustra antehac tentatae. Cum Censura brevi Doctrinae Wallisianae de Motu 1672. Lux Mathematica. Excussa Collisionibus Johannis Wallisii 1673. English translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey 1674. Principia et Problemata Aliquot Geometrica Antè Desperata, Nunc breviter Explicata & Demonstrata 1678. Decameron Physiologicum: Or, Ten Dialogues of Natural Philosophy 1679. Thomae Hobbessii Malmesburiensis Vita. Authore seipso – Latin autobiography Translated into English in 1680 Posthumous works[edit] 1680. An Historical Narration concerning Heresie, And the Punishment thereof 1681. Behemoth, or The Long Parliament Written in 1668, it was unpublished at the request of the King First pirated edition: 1679 1682. Seven Philosophical Problems (English translation of Problematica Physica, 1662) 1682. A Garden of Geometrical Roses (English translation of Rosetum Geometricum, 1671) 1682. Some Principles and Problems in Geometry (English translation of Principia et Problemata, 1674) 1688. Historia Ecclesiastica Carmine Elegiaco Concinnata Complete editions[edit] Molesworth editions[edit] Editions compiled by William Molesworth. Thomae Hobbes Malmesburiensis Opera Philosophica quae Latina Scripsit, 5 vols. 1839–1845. London: Bohn. Reprint: Aalen, 1966 (= OL) Volume Featured works Volume I Elementorum Philosophiae I: De Corpore Volume II Elementorum Philosophiae II and III: De Homine and De Cive Volume III Latin version of Leviathan. Volume IV Various concerning mathematics, geometry and physics Volume V Various short works. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, 11 vols. 1839–1845. London: Bohn. Reprint: London, 1939–; Aalen, 1966 (= EW) Volume Featured Works Volume 1 De Corpore translated from Latin to English. Volume 2 De Cive. Volume 3 The Leviathan Volume 4 TRIPOS ; in Three Discourses: Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of PolicyDe Corpore Politico, or the Elements of LawOf Liberty and NecessityAn Answer to Bishop Bramhall's Book, called "The Catching of the Leviathan"An Historical Narration concerning Heresy, and the Punishment thereofConsiderations upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners, and Religion of Thomas HobbesAnswer to Sir William Davenant's Preface before "Gondibert"Letter to the Right Honourable Edward Howard Volume 5 The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, clearly stated and debated between Dr Bramhall Bishop of Derry and Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Volume 6. A Dialogue Between a Philosopher & a Student of the Common Laws of England A Dialogue of the Common Law Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England, and of the Counsels and Artifices By Which They Were Carried on From the Year 1640 to the Year 1660 The Whole Art of Rhetoric (Hobbes's translation of his own Latin summary of Aristotle's Rhetoric published in 1637 with the title A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique) The Art of Rhetoric Plainly Set Forth. With Pertinent Examples For the More Easy Understanding and Practice of the Same (this work is not of Hobbes but by Dudley Fenner, The Artes of Logike and Rethorike, 1584) The Art of Sophistry Volume 7. Seven Philosophical Problems Decameron Physiologicum Proportion of a straight line to half the arc of a quadrant Six lessons to the Savilian Professors of the Mathematics ΣΤΙΓΜΑΙ, or Marks of the absurd Geometry etc. of Dr Wallis Extract of a letter from Henry Stubbe Three letters presented to the Royal Society against Dr Wallis Considerations on the answer of Dr Wallis Letters and other pieces Volume 8 History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, translated into English by Hobbes. Volume 9 Volume 10 The Iliad and The Odyssey, translated by Hobbes into English Volume 11 Index Posthumous works not included in the Molesworth editions[edit] Work Published year Editor Notes The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic (1st complete ed.) London: 1889 Ferdinand Tönnies, with a preface and critical notes "Short Tract on First Principles."[63] Pp. 193–210 in Elements, Appendix I. Attributed by important critics to Robert Payne Tractatus opticus II (1st partial ed.) pp. 211–226 in Elements, Appendix II. 1639, British Library, Harley MS 6796, ff. 193–266 Tractatus opticus II (1st complete ed.) Pp. 147–228 in Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 18 1963 Franco Alessio Omits the diagrams Critique du 'De mundo' de Thomas White Paris: 1973 Jean Jacquot and Harold Whitmore Jones Includes three appendixes: De Motibus Solis, Aetheris & Telluris (pp. 439–447: a Latin poem on the movement of the Earth). Notes in English on an ancient redaction of some chapters of De Corpore (July 1643; pp. 448–460: MS 5297, National Library of Wales). Notes for the Logica and Philosophia prima of the De Corpore (pp. 461–513: Chatsworth MS A10 and the notes of Charles Cavendish on a draft of the De Corpore: British Library, Harley MS 6083). Of the Life and History of Thucydides pp. 10–27 in Hobbes's Thucydides New Brunswick: 1975 Richard Schlatter Three Discourses: A Critical Modern Edition of Newly Identified Work of the Young Hobbes (TD) pp. 10–27 in Hobbes's Thucydides Chicago: 1975 Noel B. Reynolds and Arlene Saxonhouse Includes: A Discourse upon the Beginning of Tacitus pp. 31–67. A Discourse of Rome, pp. 71–102. A Discourse of Law, pp. 105–119. Thomas Hobbes' A Minute or First Draught of the Optiques (critical ed.) University of Wisconsin-Madison: 1983 Elaine C. Stroud British Library, Harley MS 3360 PhD dissertation Of Passions pp. 729–738 in Rivista di storia della filosofia 43 1988 Anna Minerbi Belgrado Edition of the unpublished manuscript Harley 6093 The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes (I: 1622–1659; II: 1660–1679) Clarendon Edition, vol. 6–7 Oxford: 1994 Noel Malcolm Translations in modern English[edit] De Corpore, Part I. Computatio Sive Logica. Edited with an Introductory Essay by L C. Hungerland and G. R. Vick. Translation and Commentary by A. Martinich. New York: Abaris Books, 1981. Thomas White's De mundo Examined, translation by H. W. Jones, Bradford: Bradford University Press, 1976 (the appendixes of the Latin edition (1973) are not enclosed). New critical editions of Hobbes's works[edit] Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, Oxford: Clarendon Press (10 volumes published of 27 planned). Traduction des œuvres latines de Hobbes, under the direction of Yves Charles Zarka, Paris: Vrin (5 volumes published of 17 planned). See also[edit] Joseph Butler Conatus § In Hobbes Natural and legal rights § Thomas Hobbes Natural law § Hobbes Hobbesian trap Hobbes's moral and political philosophy Leviathan and the Air-Pump Social physics References[edit] Citations[edit] ^ Kenneth Clatterbaugh, The Causation Debate in Modern Philosophy, 1637–1739, Routledge, 2014, p. 69. ^ Orozco-Echeverri, Sergio H. (2012). "On the Origin of Hobbes's Conception of Language: The Literary Culture of English Renaissance Humanism". Revista de Estudios Sociales. 44: 102–112. ^ a b "Thomas Hobbes". Thomas Hobbes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021. ^ Lloyd, Sharon A.; Sreedhar, Susanne (2022), "Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 10 March 2023 ^ Williams, Garrath. "Hobbes, Thomas: Moral and Political Philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 March 2023. ^ Sheldon, Garrett Ward (2003). The History of Political Theory: Ancient Greece to Modern America. Peter Lang. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-8204-2300-5. ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1679). "Opera Latina". In Molesworth, William (ed.). Vita carmine expressa. Vol. I. London. p. 86. ^ Jacobson, Norman; Rogow, Arnold A. (1986). "Thomas Hobbes: Radical in the Service of Reaction". Political Psychology. 8 (3). W.W. Norton: 469. doi:10.2307/3791051. ISBN 978-0-393-02288-9. ISSN 0162-895X. JSTOR 3791051. LCCN 79644318. OCLC 44544062. ^ a b c d e f g h Sommerville, J.P. (1992). Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context. MacMillan. pp. 256–324. ISBN 978-0-333-49599-5. ^ a b c d Robertson 1911, p. 545. ^ "Philosophy at Hertford College". Oxford: Hertford College. Retrieved 24 July 2009. ^ Helden, Al Van (1995). "Hobbes, Thomas". The Galileo Project. Rice University. ^ King, Preston T. (1993). Thomas Hobbes: Politics and law. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-415-08083-5. ^ Malcolm, Noel (2004). "Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679), philosopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13400. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ O'Connor, J.J.; Robertson, E.F. (November 2002). "Thomas Hobbes". School of Mathematics and Statistics. Scotland: University of St Andrews. ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1995). Reynolds, Noel B.; Saxonhouse, Arlene W. (eds.). Three Discourses: A Critical Modern Edition of Newly Identified Work of the Young Hobbes. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-34545-1. ^ a b c d Robertson 1911, p. 546. ^ Bickley, F. (1914). The Cavendish family. Рипол Классик. p. 44. ISBN 978-5-87487-145-1. ^ Sommerville, J.P. (1992). Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context. MacMillan. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-333-49599-5. ^ a b c d e f g Robertson 1911, p. 547. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Robertson 1911, p. 548. ^ Vardanyan, Vilen (2011). Panorama of Psychology. AuthorHouse. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-4567-0032-4.. ^ Aubrey, John (1898) [1669–1696]. Clark, A. (ed.). Brief Lives: Chiefly of Contemporaries. Vol. II. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 277. ^ Robertson 1911, p. 550. ^ "House of Commons Journal Volume 8". British History Online. Retrieved 14 January 2005. ^ a b c d Robertson 1911, p. 551. ^ "Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)". BBC. Retrieved 14 April 2021. ^ a b Malcolm, Noel (2003). Aspects of Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 80. ISBN 0199247145. ^ Grounds, Eric; Tidy, Bill; Stilgoe, Richard (25 November 2014). The Bedside Book of Final Words. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-4456-4464-6. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A history p. 687 ^ Coulter, Michael L.; Myers, Richard S.; Varacalli, Joseph A. (5 April 2012). Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy: Supplement. Scarecrow Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-8108-8275-1. ^ Hobbes, Thomas (10 November 2021). "Thomas Hobbes - Political Philosophy". Britannica. Retrieved 10 November 2021. ^ Malcolm, Noel (2003). "Hobbes's Science of Politics and His Theory of Science". Aspects of Hobbes (Online ed.). Oxford Scholarship Online. pp. 147–155. doi:10.1093/0199247145.001.0001. ISBN 9780199247141. Retrieved 21 March 2021. ^ Gaskin. "Introduction". Human Nature and De Corpore Politico. Oxford University Press. p. xxx. ^ "Chapter XIII.: Of the Natural Condition of Mankind As Concerning Their Felicity, and Misery.". Leviathan. 4 September 2022. ^ Part I, Chapter XIV. Of the First and Second Naturall Lawes, and of Contracts. (Not All Rights are Alienable), Leviathan: "And therefore there be some Rights, which no man can be understood by any words, or other signes, to have abandoned, or transferred. As first a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them, that assault him by force, to take away his life; because he cannot be understood to ayme thereby, at any Good to himselfe. The same may be sayd of Wounds, and Chayns, and Imprisonment". ^ Gaskin. "Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution". Leviathan. Oxford University Press. p. 117. ^ "1000 Makers of the Millennium", p. 42. Dorling Kindersley, 1999 ^ Peter, Kanzler (31 May 2020). The Leviathan (1651), The Two Treatises of Government (1689), The Social Contract (1762), The Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776). Peter Kanzler. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-716-89340-7. ^ Vélez, F., La palabra y la espada (2014) ^ Ameriks, Karl; Clarke, Desmond M. (2007). Chappell, Vere (ed.). Hobbes and Bramhall on Liberty and Necessity (PDF). Cambridge University Press. p. 31. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511495830. ISBN 978-0-511-49583-0. ^ Robertson 1911, p. 549. ^ Boyd, Andrew (2008). "Hobbes and Wallis". Episode 2372. The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Retrieved 14 November 2020. ^ "Thomas Hobbes". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021. ^ p. 282 of Molesworth's edition. ^ Martinich, A. P. (1995). A Hobbes Dictionary. Cambridge: Blackwell. p. 35. ^ Martinich, A. P. (1995). A Hobbes Dictionary. Cambridge: Blackwell. p. 31. ^ Human Nature I.XI.5. ^ Leviathan III.xxxii.2. "...we are not to renounce our Senses, and Experience; nor (that which is undoubted Word of God) our naturall Reason". ^ Hobbes, Thomas (1995). Reynolds, Noel B.; Saxonhouse, Arlene W. (eds.). Three Discourses: A Critical Modern Edition of Newly Identified Work of the Young Hobbes. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-34545-1. ^ Hobbes, Thomas. 1630. A Short Tract on First Principles, British Library, Harleian MS 6796, ff. 297–308. ^ Bernhardt, Jean. 1988. Court traité des premiers principes. Paris: PUF. (Critical edition with commentary and French translation). ^ Timothy Raylor, Franco Giudice, Stephen Clucas, and Noel Malcolm vote for Robert Payne. Karl Schuhmann, Cees Leijenhorst, Guilherme Rodrigues Neto, and Frank Horstmann vote for Thomas Hobbes. On arguments pro Payne see Timothy Raylor, Hobbes, Payne, and 'A Short Tract on First Principles' (The Historical Journal, 44, 2001, pp. 29–58) and Noel Malcolm, Robert Payne, the Hobbes Manuscripts, and the 'Short Tract' (in: Aspects of Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 80–145). On arguments pro Hobbes see Karl Schuhmann, Le 'Short Tract', première oeuvre philosophique de Hobbes (Hobbes Studies, 8, 1995, pp. 3-36.) and Frank Horstmann, Der Grauvließer. Robert Payne und Thomas Hobbes als Urheber des 'Short Tract' (Berlin: epubli, 2020, ISBN 978-3-752952-92-6.) ^ Harwood, John T., ed. 1986. The Rhetorics of Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Lamy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Provides a new edition of the work). ^ Schuhmann, Karl (1998). "Skinner's Hobbes". British Journal for the History of Philosophy. 6 (1): 115. doi:10.1080/09608789808570984. p. 118. ^ Skinner, Quentin. [2002] 2012. Hobbes and Civil Science, (Visions of Politics 3). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511613784. (Skinner affirms Schuhmann's view: p. 4, fn. 27.) ^ Evrigenis, Ioannis D. (2016). "Images of Anarchy: The Rhetoric and Science in Hobbes's State of Nature". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 10 March 2023. (Provides a summary of this confusing episode, as well as most relevant literature. p. 48 n. 13) ^ Hobbes, Thomas. 1639. Tractatus opticus II. vis British Library, Harley MS 6796, ff. 193–266. ^ First complete edition: 1963. For this dating, see the convincing arguments given by: Horstmann, Frank. 2006. Nachträge zu Betrachtungen über Hobbes' Optik. Berlin: Mackensen. ISBN 978-3-926535-51-1. pp. 19–94. ^ A critical analysis of Thomas White (1593–1676) De mundo dialogi tres, Parisii, 1642. ^ Hobbes, Thomas. 1646. A Minute or First Draught of the Optiques via Harley MS 3360. ^ Modern scholars are divided as to whether or not this translation was done by Hobbes. For a pro-Hobbes account see H. Warrender's introduction to De Cive: The English Edition in The Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes (Oxford, 1984). For the contra-Hobbes account see Noel Malcolm, "Charles Cotton, Translator of Hobbes's De Cive" in Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford, 2002) ^ critical edition: Court traité des premiers principes, text, French translation and commentary by Jean Bernhardt, Paris: PUF, 1988 Sources[edit] "Hinduism" to "Home, Earls of" at Project Gutenberg Attribution:  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Robertson, George Croom; Anonymous texts (1911). "Hobbes, Thomas". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 545–552. Further reading[edit] General resources[edit] MacDonald, Hugh & Hargreaves, Mary. Thomas Hobbes, a Bibliography, London: The Bibliographical Society, 1952. Hinnant, Charles H. (1980). Thomas Hobbes: A Reference Guide, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. Garcia, Alfred (1986). Thomas Hobbes: bibliographie internationale de 1620 à 1986 (in French), Caen: Centre de Philosophie politique et juridique Université de Caen. Critical studies[edit] Brandt, Frithiof (1928). Thomas Hobbes' Mechanical Conception of Nature, Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard. Jesseph, Douglas M. (1999). Squaring the Circle. The War Between Hobbes and Wallis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Leijenhorst, Cees (2002). The Mechanisation of Aristotelianism. The Late Aristotelian Setting of Thomas Hobbes' Natural Philosophy, Leiden: Brill. Lemetti, Juhana (2011). Historical Dictionary of Hobbes's Philosophy, Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Macpherson, C. B. (1962). The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Malcolm, Noel (2002). Aspects of Hobbes, New York: Oxford University Press. MacKay-Pritchard, Noah (2019). "Origins of the State of Nature", London Malcolm, Noel (2007). Reason of State, Propaganda, and the Thirty Years' War: An Unknown Translation by Thomas Hobbes, New York: Oxford University Press. Manent, Pierre (1996). An Intellectual History of Liberalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Martinich, A. P. (2003) "Thomas Hobbes" in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 281: British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500–1660, Second Series, Detroit: Gale, pp. 130–144. Martinich, A. P. (1995). A Hobbes Dictionary, Cambridge: Blackwell. Martinich, A. P. (1997). Thomas Hobbes, New York: St. Martin's Press. Martinich, A. P. (1992). The Two Gods of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Religion and Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martinich, A. P. (1999). Hobbes: A Biography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Narveson, Jan; Trenchard, David (2008). "Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1676)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 226–227. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n137. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Oakeshott, Michael (1975). Hobbes on Civil Association, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Parkin, Jon, (2007), Taming the Leviathan: The Reception of the Political and Religious Ideas of Thomas Hobbes in England 1640–1700, [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] Pettit, Philip (2008). Made with Words. Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Robinson, Dave and Groves, Judy (2003). Introducing Political Philosophy, Icon Books. ISBN 978-1-84046-450-4. Ross, George MacDonald (2009). Starting with Hobbes, London: Continuum. Shapin, Steven and Schaffer, Simon (1995). Leviathan and the Air-Pump. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Skinner, Quentin (1996). Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Skinner, Quentin (2002). Visions of Politics. Vol. III: Hobbes and Civil Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Skinner, Quentin (2008). Hobbes and Republican Liberty, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stomp, Gabriella (ed.) (2008). Thomas Hobbes, Aldershot: Ashgate. Strauss, Leo (1936). The Political Philosophy of Hobbes; Its Basis and Its Genesis, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Strauss, Leo (1959). "On the Basis of Hobbes's Political Philosophy" in What Is Political Philosophy?, Glencoe, IL: Free Press, chap. 7. Tönnies, Ferdinand (1925). Hobbes. Leben und Lehre, Stuttgart: Frommann, 3rd ed. Tuck, Richard (1993). Philosophy and Government, 1572–1651, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vélez, Fabio (2014). La palabra y la espada: a vueltas con Hobbes, Madrid: Maia. Vieira, Monica Brito (2009). The Elements of Representation in Hobbes, Leiden: Brill Publishers. Zagorin, Perez (2009). Hobbes and the Law of Nature, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Hobbes. Wikiquote has quotations related to Thomas Hobbes. Wikisource has original works by or about:Thomas Hobbes Portraits of Thomas Hobbes at the National Portrait Gallery, London Montmorency, James E. G. de (1913). "Thomas Hobbes". In Macdonell, John; Manson, Edward William Donoghue (eds.). Great Jurists of the World. London: John Murray. pp. 195–219. Retrieved 12 March 2019 – via Internet Archive. Works by Thomas Hobbes at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Thomas Hobbes at Internet Archive "Thomas Hobbes". Retrieved 29 March 2019 – via Online Library of Liberty. Works by Thomas Hobbes at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Hobbes Texts English translations by George Mac Donald Ross Contains Leviathan, lightly edited for easier reading, earlymoderntexts.com Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes Richard A. Talaska (ed.), The Hardwick Library and Hobbes's Early Intellectual Development Hobbes studies Online edition Thomas Hobbes at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Hobbes: Methodology at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Hobbes: Moral and Political Philosophy at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy A Brief Life of Thomas Hobbes, 1588–1679 by John Aubrey A short biography of Thomas Hobbes, atheisme.free.fr Hobbes biography, Philosophypages.com Thomas Hobbes on In Our Time at the BBC Thomas Hobbes nominated by Steven Pinker for the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives. Links to related articles vtePolitical philosophyTerms Authority Citizenship‎ Duty Elite Emancipation Freedom Government Hegemony Hierarchy Justice Law Legitimacy Liberty Monopoly Nation Obedience Peace Pluralism Power Progress Propaganda Property Revolution Rights Ruling class Society Sovereignty‎ State Utopia War Government Aristocracy Autocracy Bureaucracy Dictatorship Democracy Meritocracy Monarchy Oligarchy Plutocracy Technocracy Theocracy Ideologies Agrarianism Anarchism Capitalism Christian democracy Colonialism Communism Communitarianism Confucianism Conservatism Corporatism Distributism Environmentalism Fascism Feminism Feudalism Imperialism Islamism Liberalism Libertarianism Localism Marxism Monarchism Multiculturalism Nationalism Nazism Populism Republicanism Social Darwinism Social democracy Socialism Third Way Concepts Balance of power Bellum omnium contra omnes Body politic Clash of civilizations Common good Consent of the governed Divine right of kings Family as a model for the state Monopoly on violence Natural law Negative and positive rights Night-watchman state Noble lie Noblesse oblige Open society Ordered liberty Original position Overton window Separation of powers Social contract State of nature Statolatry Tyranny of the majority PhilosophersAncient Aristotle Chanakya Cicero Confucius Han Fei Lactantius Mencius Mozi Plato political philosophy Polybius Shang Sun Tzu Thucydides Xenophon Medieval Alpharabius Aquinas Averroes Bruni Dante Gelasius al-Ghazali Ibn Khaldun Marsilius Muhammad Nizam al-Mulk Ockham Plethon Wang Early modern Boétie Bodin Bossuet Calvin Campanella Filmer Grotius Guicciardini Hobbes political philosophy James Leibniz Locke Luther Machiavelli Milton More Müntzer Pufendorf Spinoza Suárez 18th and 19thcenturies Bakunin Bastiat Beccaria Bentham Bolingbroke Bonald Burke Carlyle Comte Condorcet Constant Cortés Engels Fichte Fourier Franklin Godwin Haller Hegel Herder Hume Iqbal political philosophy Jefferson Kant political philosophy Le Bon Le Play Madison Maistre Marx Mazzini Mill Montesquieu Nietzsche Owen Paine Renan Rousseau Sade Saint-Simon Smith Spencer de Staël Stirner Taine Thoreau Tocqueville Tucker Voltaire 20th and 21stcenturies Agamben Ambedkar Arendt Aron Badiou Bauman Benoist Berlin Bernstein Burnham Chomsky Dmowski Du Bois Dugin Dworkin Evola Foucault Fromm Fukuyama Gandhi Gentile Gramsci Guénon Habermas Hayek Hoppe Huntington Kautsky Kirk Kropotkin Laclau Lenin Luxemburg Mansfield Mao Marcuse Maurras Michels Mises Mosca Mouffe Negri Nozick Nussbaum Oakeshott Ortega Pareto Popper Qutb Rand Rawls Röpke Rothbard Russell Sartre Schmitt Scruton Shariati Sorel Spann Spengler Strauss Sun Taylor Voegelin Walzer Weber Works Republic (c. 375 BC) Politics (c. 350 BC) De re publica (51 BC) Treatise on Law (c. 1274) Monarchia (1313) The Prince (1532) Leviathan (1651) Two Treatises of Government (1689) The Spirit of Law (1748) The Social Contract (1762) Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Rights of Man (1791) Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820) Democracy in America (1835–1840) The Communist Manifesto (1848) On Liberty (1859) The Revolt of the Masses (1929) The Road to Serfdom (1944) The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) A Theory of Justice (1971) The End of History and the Last Man (1992) Related Authoritarianism Collectivism and individualism Conflict theories Contractualism Critique of political economy Egalitarianism Elite theory Elitism Institutional discrimination Jurisprudence Justification for the state Philosophy of law Political ethics Political spectrum Left-wing politics Centrism Right-wing politics Separation of church and state Separatism Social justice Statism Totalitarianism Index Category:Political philosophy vtePhilosophy of languageIndex of language articlesPhilosophers Confucius Gorgias Cratylus Plato Aristotle Eubulides Diodorus Chrysippus Zhuangzi Xunzi Averroes Ibn Khaldun Hobbes Leibniz Herder von Humboldt Mauthner Ricœur de Saussure Frege Boas Tillich Sapir Bloomfield Bergson Vygotsky Wittgenstein Russell Carnap Derrida Whorf Austin Chomsky Gadamer Kripke Ayer Anscombe Hintikka Dummett Davidson Grice Ryle Strawson Quine Putnam Lewis Searle Watzlawick Theories Causal theory of reference Contrast theory of meaning Contrastivism Conventionalism Cratylism Deconstruction Descriptivism Direct reference theory Dramatism Dynamic semantics Expressivism Inquisitive semantics Linguistic determinism Mediated reference theory Nominalism Non-cognitivism Phallogocentrism Relevance theory Semantic externalism Semantic holism Situation semantics Structuralism Supposition theory Symbiosism Theological noncognitivism Theory of descriptions (Definite description) Theory of language Unilalianism Verification theory Concepts Ambiguity Cant Linguistic relativity Language Truth-bearer Proposition Use–mention distinction Concept Categories Set Class Family resemblance Intension Logical form Metalanguage Mental representation Modality (natural language) Presupposition Principle of compositionality Property Sign Sense and reference Speech act Symbol Sentence Statement more... Works Cratylus (n.d.) Port-Royal Grammar (1660) De Arte Combinatoria (1666) An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668) Alciphron (1732) "On Denoting" (1905) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) Language, Truth, and Logic (1936) Two Dogmas of Empiricism (1951) Philosophical Investigations (1953) Of Grammatology (1967) Naming and Necessity (1980) Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982) Limited Inc (1988) Related articles Analytic philosophy Philosophy of information Philosophical logic Linguistics Pragmatics Rhetoric Scholasticism School of Names Semantics Formal semantics Semiotics Category Task Force Discussion vteJurisprudence Index Legal theory Critical legal studies Comparative law Economic analysis Legal norms International legal theory Legal history Philosophy of law Sociology of law Philosophers Alexy Aquinas Aristotle Austin Bastiat Beccaria Bentham Blackstone Bobbio Bork Cardozo Durkheim Dworkin Ehrlich Finnis Fuller Grotius Gurvitch Habermas Haller Han Hart Hegel Hobbes Hägerström Jellinek Jhering Kant Kelsen Leoni Llewellyn Luhmann Marx Müller Nussbaum Olivecrona Pashukanis Perelman Petrażycki Posner Pound Pufendorf Radbruch Rawls Raz Reinach Renner Ross Rumi Savigny Scaevola Schmitt Shang Suárez Stahl Unger Voegelin Walzer Weber Theories Analytical jurisprudence Deontological ethics Fundamental theory of Catholic canon law German historical school Interpretivism Legal moralism Legal positivism Legal realism Legalism Libertarian theories of law Natural law Paternalism Utilitarianism Virtue jurisprudence Concepts Dharma Fa Judicial interpretation Justice Law without the state Legal system Li Question of law Rational-legal authority Usul al-Fiqh Category Law portal Philosophy portal WikiProject Law WikiProject Philosophy changes vtePhilosophy of scienceConcepts Analysis Analytic–synthetic distinction A priori and a posteriori Causality Commensurability Consilience Construct Creative synthesis Demarcation problem Empirical evidence Explanatory power Fact Falsifiability Feminist method Functional contextualism Ignoramus et ignorabimus Inductive reasoning Intertheoretic reduction Inquiry Nature Objectivity Observation Paradigm Problem of induction Scientific evidence Evidence-based practice Scientific law Scientific method Scientific pluralism Scientific Revolution Scientific theory Testability Theory choice Theory-ladenness Underdetermination Unity of science more... Theories Coherentism Confirmation holism Constructive empiricism Constructive realism Constructivist epistemology Contextualism Conventionalism Deductive-nomological model Epistemological anarchism Evolutionism Fallibilism Foundationalism Hypothetico-deductive model Inductionism Instrumentalism Model-dependent realism Naturalism Physicalism Positivism / Reductionism / Determinism Pragmatism Rationalism / Empiricism Received view / Semantic view of theories Scientific essentialism Scientific formalism Scientific realism / Anti-realism Scientific skepticism Scientism Structuralism Uniformitarianism Vitalism Philosophy of... Biology Chemistry Physics Space and time Social science Archaeology Economics‎ Geography History Linguistics Psychology Related topics Criticism of science Descriptive science Epistemology Faith and rationality Hard and soft science History and philosophy of science Normative science Protoscience Pseudoscience Relationship between religion and science Rhetoric of science Science studies Sociology of scientific ignorance Sociology of scientific knowledge Philosophers of sciencePrecursors Roger Bacon Francis Bacon Galileo Galilei Isaac Newton Auguste Comte Henri Poincaré Pierre Duhem Rudolf Steiner Karl Pearson Charles Sanders Peirce Wilhelm Windelband Alfred North Whitehead Bertrand Russell Otto Neurath C. D. Broad Michael Polanyi Hans Reichenbach Rudolf Carnap Karl Popper Carl Gustav Hempel W. V. O. Quine Thomas Kuhn Imre Lakatos Paul Feyerabend Ian Hacking Bas van Fraassen Larry Laudan Category  Philosophy portal  Science portal vteEvolutionary psychologistsEvolutionary psychologyBiologists /neuroscientists Bernard Crespi John Crook Charles Darwin Richard Dawkins Jared Diamond W. D. Hamilton Alfred Kinsey Peter Kropotkin Gordon Orians Jaak Panksepp Margie Profet Peter Richerson Giacomo Rizzolatti Randy Thornhill Robert Trivers Carel van Schaik Claus Wedekind Mary Jane West-Eberhard Wolfgang Wickler George C. Williams David Sloan Wilson E. O. Wilson Richard Wrangham Anthropologists Jerome H. Barkow Christopher Boehm Robert Boyd Donald E. Brown Napoleon Chagnon Robin Dunbar Daniel Fessler Mark Flinn John D. Hawks Joseph Henrich Ruth Mace Daniel Nettle Stephen Shennan Donald Symons John Tooby Pierre van den Berghe Psychologists /cognitive scientists Mary Ainsworth Simon Baron-Cohen Justin L. Barrett Jay Belsky Jesse Bering David F. Bjorklund Paul Bloom John Bowlby Pascal Boyer Joseph Bulbulia David Buss Josep Call Anne Campbell Donald T. Campbell Peter Carruthers Noam Chomsky Leda Cosmides Martin Daly Paul Ekman Bruce J. Ellis Anne Fernald Aurelio José Figueredo Diana Fleischman Uta Frith Gordon G. Gallup David C. Geary Gerd Gigerenzer Jonathan Haidt Harry Harlow Judith Rich Harris Martie Haselton Stephen Kaplan Douglas T. Kenrick Simon M. Kirby Robert Kurzban Brian MacWhinney Michael T. McGuire Geoffrey Miller Darcia Narvaez Katherine Nelson Randolph M. Nesse Steven Neuberg David Perrett Henry Plotkin Steven Pinker Paul Rozin Mark Schaller David P. Schmitt Nancy Segal Todd K. Shackelford Roger Shepard Irwin Silverman Peter K. Smith Dan Sperber Anthony Stevens Frank Sulloway Michael Tomasello Joshua Tybur Mark van Vugt Andrew Whiten Glenn Wilson Margo Wilson Othersocial scientists Christopher Badcock Samuel Bowles Ernst Fehr Herbert Gintis Dominic D. P. Johnson Gad Saad Literary theorists /philosophers Edmund Burke Joseph Carroll Daniel Dennett Denis Dutton Thomas Hobbes David Hume Research centers/organizations Center for Evolutionary Psychology Human Behavior and Evolution Society Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences New England Complex Systems Institute Publications The Adapted Mind Evolution and Human Behavior The Evolution of Human Sexuality Evolution, Mind and Behaviour Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences Evolutionary Psychology  Evolutionary psychology  Psychology portal  Evolutionary biology portal Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Chile Spain France BnF data Argentina Catalonia Germany Italy Israel Belgium United States Sweden Latvia Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Croatia Netherlands Poland Portugal Russia Vatican Academics CiNii MathSciNet zbMATH People Deutsche Biographie Trove Other SNAC IdRef

EXCERPTS FROM LEVIATHAN

"Lesser Town Square" by Miroslav Petrasko is licensed under CC by-NC-ND 2.0.

Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties­ of the body and mind, as that, though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he. For, as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself.

And, as to the faculties of the mind, setting aside the arts grounded upon words and especially that skill of proceeding upon general and infallible rules called science, which very few have and but in few things, as being not a native faculty born with us, nor attained, as prudence, while we look after somewhat else, I find yet a greater equality amongst men than that of strength. For prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men in those things they equally apply themselves unto. That which may perhaps make such equality incredible is but a vain conceit of one's own wisdom, which almost all men think they have in a greater degree than the vulgar, that is, than all men but themselves, and a few others whom by fame or for concurring with themselves they approve. For such is the nature of men that, howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves, for they see their own wit at hand and other men's at a distance. But this proveth rather that men are in that point equal than unequal. For there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equal distribution of anything than that every man is contented with his share.

From this equality of ability ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of our ends. And therefore, if any two men desire the same thing which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and, in the way to their end, which is principally their own conservation and sometimes their delectation only, endeavour to destroy or subdue one another. And from hence it comes to pass that, where an invader hath no more to fear than another man's single power, if one plant, sow, build, or possess, a convenient seat others may probably be expected to come prepared with forces united to dispossess and deprive him not only of the fruit of his labor but also of his life or liberty. And the invader again is in the like danger of another.

And from this diffidence of one another there is no way for any man to secure himself so reasonable as anticipation, that is, by force or wiles to master the persons of all men he can so long till he see no other power great enough to endanger him; and this is no more than his own conservation requireth and is generally allowed. Also, because there be some that, taking pleasure in contemplating their own power in the acts of conquest, which they pursue farther than their security requires, if others, that otherwise would be glad to be at ease within the modest bounds, should not be invasion increase their power, they would not be able long time, by standing only on their defence, to subsist. And by consequence, such augmentation of dominion over men being necessary to a man's conservation, it ought to be allowed him.

Again, men have no pleasure, but on the contrary a great deal of grief, in keeping company where there is no power able to overawe them all. For every man looketh that his companion should value him at the same rate he sets upon himself, and, upon all signs of contempt or undervaluing, naturally endeavours as far as he dares (which amongst them that have no common power to keep them in quiet, is far enough to make them destroy each other) to extort a greater value from his contemners by damage, and from others by the example.

So that in the nature of man we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory.

The first maketh man invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.

Hereby it is manifest that, during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man. For 'war' consisteth not in battle only or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known, and therefore the notion of 'time' is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain but in an inclination thereto of many days together, so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is 'peace.'

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time or war where every man is enemy to every man, the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

It may seem strange to some man that has not well weighed these things that Nature should thus dissociate and render men apt to invade and destroy one another; and he may therefore, not trusting to this inference made from the passions, desire perhaps to have the same confirmed by experience. Let him therefore consider with himself, when taking a journey, he arms himself and seeks to go well accompanied; when going to sleep, he locks his doors; when even in his house, he locks his chests; and this when he knows there be laws and public officers armed to revenge all injuries shall be done him; what opinion he has of his fellow-subjects when he rides armed; of his fellow-citizens, when he locks his doors; and of his children and servants, when he locks his chests. Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions as I do by my words? But neither of us accuse man's nature in it. The desires and other passions of man are in themselves no sin. No more are the actions that proceed from those passions, till they know a law that forbids them; which, till laws be made, they cannot know, nor can any law be made till they have agreed upon the person that shall make it.

It may peradventure be thought there was never such a time nor condition of war as this; and I believe it was never generally so over all the world, but there are many places where they live so now. For the savage people in many places of America, except the government of small families the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust, have no government at all, and live at this day in that brutish manner as I said before. Howsoever, it may be perceived what manner of life there would be where there were no common power to fear, by the manner of life which men that have formerly lived under a peaceful government use to degenerate into, in a civil war.

But, though there had never been any time wherein particular men were in a condition of war one against another, yet in all times kings and persons of sovereign authority, because of their independency, are in continual jealousies and in the state and posture of gladiators, having their weapons pointing, and their eyes fixed on one another, that is, their forts, garrisons, and guns, upon the frontiers of their kingdoms, and continual spies upon their neighbours: which is a posture of war. But because they uphold thereby the industry of their subjects, there does not follow from it that misery which accompanies the liberty of particular men.

To this war of every man against every man this also is consequent, that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. Justice and injustice are none of the faculties neither of the body nor mind. If they were, they might be in a man that were alone in the world, as well as his senses and passions. They are qualities that relate to men in society, not in solitude. It is consequent also to the same condition that there be no propriety, no dominion, no 'mine' and 'thine' distinct, but only that to be every man's that he can get, and for so long as he can keep it. And thus much for the ill condition which man by mere nature is actually placed in, though with a possibility to come out of it, consisting partly in the passions, partly in his reason.

The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death, desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living, and a hope by their industry to obtain them. And reason suggesteth convenient articles of peace, upon which men may be drawn to agreement. These articles are they which otherwise are called the Laws of Nature, whereof I shall speak more particularly in the two following chapters.

Current Page: 1

GRADE:11

Additional Information:

Rating: Words in the Passage: 1510 Unique Words: 563 Sentences: 50
Noun: 469 Conjunction: 228 Adverb: 142 Interjection: 2
Adjective: 102 Pronoun: 126 Verb: 235 Preposition: 241
Letter Count: 7,859 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral (Slightly Formal) Difficult Words: 330
EdSearch WebSearch
Questions and Answers

Please wait while we generate questions and answers...

Related Passages:

Related Passages

Ratings & Comments

Write a Review
5 Star
0
0
4 Star
0
0
3 Star
0
0
2 Star
0
0
1 Star
0
0
0

0 Ratings & 0 Reviews

Report an Error