Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes | Brief Summary

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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the summary of Thomas Hobbes's philosophical text Leviathan.

Thomas Hobbes's treatise Leviathan posits a social framework in which societies are able to avoid civil war.

Hobbes maintains that the surest path toward a just and stable society is through the creation of a Christian commonwealth.

By sacrificing some of their freedoms, members of such a society can unite behind a sovereign leader and live in harmony.

Using powerful imagery and metaphor, the philosopher explains that the precepts of Christianity and rationality can complement each other. Hobbes envisions this structure as a giant sea monster, with the leader as the head and the society as the body.

His enlightened ideas about how humans ought to interact was a defining development in western philosophy and shaped its governance, notably influencing the principles upon which the United States is founded.

English scholar Thomas Hobbes’s treatise Leviathan was first published in 1651. Considered the father of political science, Hobbes was an English scholar whose interest in science led him to develop theories of human nature. Loyal to the English monarchy, he fled to France as civil war began in England and wrote Leviathan in response to the strife.

Leviathan contains many important ideas on war, civic versus ecclesiastical authority, and peace, including the idea that in a state of nature, men are constantly at war with each other; that the commonwealth should hold more power over the people than the Church; and that relinquishing some freedom through the creation of laws allows man to gain the security of a peaceful life.

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