Thomas Hobbes
Social contract theorist
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher of the seventeenth century, best known for *Leviathan* (1651), which argues that humans in their natural state exist in perpetual conflict—"a war of all against all"—and that peace requires surrendering individual freedoms to an absolute sovereign.
His phrase the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short describes existence without political order.
Hobbes remains foundational to social contract theory and political philosophy.
Agreement exchanging freedom for order
- state of natureHypothetical pre-governmental human existence
- commonwealthState for public good
- covenantBinding formal pledge
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
anarchy · body politic · civil war · English Civil War · frontispiece · self-preservation · fear · security
Inborn behavioral tendencies shared universally
- passionsIntense driving emotions
- reasonBasis or justification
- self-interestConcern for personal advantage
- natural rightFreedom one possesses innately
natural law · political philosophy · moral philosophy · 17th century · Bacon
Ultimate governmental authority
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- centralized powerAuthority held by few
- obedienceCompliance with authority
- political authorityLegitimate governmental power
autocracy · supreme ruler · despotism · authoritarianism · dominion · governance · hierarchy · control
Means by which something operates
- motionChange in position
- matterSpace-occupying substance with mass
- physicalismAll is matter
- determinismDoctrine of causal necessity
causation · sensation · perception · monism · natural philosophy · reductionism · empiricism · nominalism
social contract
Agreement exchanging freedom for order
- state of natureHypothetical pre-governmental human existence
- commonwealthState for public good
- covenantBinding formal pledge
sovereignty · anarchy · body politic · civil war · English Civil War · frontispiece · self-preservation · fear · security · peace
human nature
Inborn behavioral tendencies shared universally
- passionsIntense driving emotions
- reasonBasis or justification
- self-interestConcern for personal advantage
natural right · natural law · political philosophy · moral philosophy · 17th century · Bacon
sovereign power
Ultimate governmental authority
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- centralized powerAuthority held by few
- obedienceCompliance with authority
political authority · autocracy · supreme ruler · despotism · authoritarianism · dominion · governance · hierarchy · control
mechanism
Means by which something operates
- motionChange in position
- matterSpace-occupying substance with mass
- physicalismAll is matter
determinism · causation · sensation · perception · monism · natural philosophy · reductionism · empiricism · nominalism · geometry
- ThomasThomas Aquinas, Thomas Becket, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Edison, Thomas Hardy
- philosophyethics, logic, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology
- 17th Century FiguresOliver Cromwell, Louis XIV, Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, Rembrandt
- 17th Century ThinkersRene Descartes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, John Locke
- British PhilosophyJohn Locke, Bertrand Russell, David Hume, George Berkeley, John Stuart Mill
- British ThinkersBertrand Russell, John Locke, David Hume, Francis Bacon, John Stuart Mill
Thomas HobbesJean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau · John Locke · mutual aid · anarchism · innate goodness
Thomas Hobbesanarchists
Opponents of state authority
John Locke · anarchism · libertarians · libertarianism · limited government
Thomas HobbesRené Descartes
George Berkeley · idealism · dualism · Plato · Immanuel Kant