person1588–1679

Thomas Hobbes

Disciplines:

Summary

English philosopher — author of Leviathan (1651) — who argued that without a sovereign power, life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' — and that legitimate government derives from a social contract in which individuals surrender natural freedom for security.

Core Contribution

Creates the social contract theory of political authority — Hobbes's state of nature (war of all against all) and the Leviathan's argument (that rational individuals will authorize a sovereign to impose order rather than face anarchic violence) is the foundational modern argument for why government exists and why it has authority.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Was reportedly born prematurely when his mother heard the Spanish Armada was coming — he later wrote 'fear and I were born twins'; his philosophical preoccupation with security and the fear of violent death is consistent with his self-reported birth narrative, whether or not the story is accurate
Lived to 91 in an era when life expectancy was under 40 — the philosopher of the 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' life had the longest life of any major philosopher of his era; the irony was noticed by contemporaries

Notable Works & Achievements

Elements of Law

De Cive

Leviathan

Behemoth

Historical Influences

Galileo Thucydides Euclid

Intellectual Lineage

Westport, Wiltshire Oxford Cavendish family Paris exile London

Contemporaries & Peers

Descartes Harvey John Locke

Minds Influenced

Social contract theory Realist international relations

Intellectual Posterity

Leviathan State of nature 'Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'Social contract theory Hobbesian realism

Discussing

Thomas Hobbes

Ask anything about Thomas Hobbes — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1588–1679

Thomas Hobbes

Disciplines:

philosophy

england

political theory

political philosophy/social contract

Summary

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Was reportedly born prematurely when his mother heard the Spanish Armada was coming — he later wrote 'fear and I were born twins'; his philosophical preoccupation with security and the fear of violent death is consistent with his self-reported birth narrative, whether or not the story is accurate
Lived to 91 in an era when life expectancy was under 40 — the philosopher of the 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' life had the longest life of any major philosopher of his era; the irony was noticed by contemporaries

Notable Works & Achievements

Elements of Law

De Cive

Leviathan

Behemoth

Historical Influences

Galileo Thucydides Euclid

Intellectual Lineage

Westport, Wiltshire Oxford Cavendish family Paris exile London

Contemporaries & Peers

Descartes Harvey John Locke

Minds Influenced

Social contract theory Realist international relations

Intellectual Posterity

Leviathan State of nature 'Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'Social contract theory Hobbesian realism

Discussing

Thomas Hobbes

Ask anything about Thomas Hobbes — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.