Leviathan (Classics of World Literature)

With an Introduction by Dr Richard Serjeantson, Trinity College, Cambridge

Since its first publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan has been recognised as one of the most compelling, and most controversial, works of political philosophy written in English. Forged in the crucible of the civil and religious warfare of the mid-seventeenth century, it proposes a political theory that combines:

• An unequivocal commitment to natural human liberty
• The conviction that the sovereign power of government must be exercised absolutely

Leviathan begins from some shockingly naturalistic starting points:

• An analysis of human nature as being motivated by vain-glory and pride
• A vision of religion as simply the fear of invisible powers made up by the mind

Yet, from these deliberately unpromising elements, Hobbes constructs with unparalleled forcefulness an elaborate, systematic, and comprehensive account of how political society ought to be: ordered, law-bound, peaceful.

In Leviathan, Hobbes presents us with a portrait of politics that depicts how a state, formed by the unified body of all its citizens, will be:

• Powerful
• Fruitful
• Protective of each of its members
• Free from internal violence