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Nonfiction · 1651

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes

Reading time
about 15.5 h
Length
212,248 words · 474 pages in print
Structure
47 chapters · 3 front-matter sections
Language
English
Era
17th Century

Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill in 1651, in the aftermath of the English Civil War. It is the first great work of political philosophy in English, and the first to build a state out of nothing but the appetites and fears of the people inside it.

Hobbes begins with sense and imagination, works up through speech, reason and passion, and only then puts men together — where, having no common power over them, they find life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. The way out is a covenant to hand over the whole of one’s right of self-defence to a sovereign who cannot be judged by those who made him. The last two parts turn on the Church, and deny that any priest holds an authority beside the sovereign’s.

The four parts are given complete, with Hobbes’s conclusion.

Contents

  1. Dedication
  2. The Introduction
  3. Part I — Of Man
  4. Chapter I — Of Sense
  5. Chapter II — Of Imagination
  6. Chapter III — Of the Consequence or Trayne of Imaginations
  7. Chapter IV — Of Speech
  8. Chapter V — Of Reason, and Science
  9. Chapter VI — Of the Interiour Beginnings of Voluntary Motions
  10. Chapter VII — Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse
  11. Chapter VIII — Of the Vertues Commonly Called Intellectual; And Their Contrary Defects
  12. Chapter IX — Of the Severall Subjects of Knowledge
  13. Chapter X — Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour and Worthiness
  14. Chapter XI — Of the Difference of Manners
  15. Chapter XII — Of Religion
  16. Chapter XIII — Of the Naturall Condition of Mankind, as Concerning Their Felicity, and Misery
  17. Chapter XIV — Of the First and Second Naturall Lawes, and of Contracts
  18. Chapter XV — Of Other Lawes of Nature
  19. Chapter XVI — Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated
  20. Part II — Of Common-Wealth
  21. Chapter XVII — Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Common-Wealth
  22. Chapter XVIII — Of the Rights of Soveraignes by Institution
  23. Chapter XIX — Of the Severall Kinds of Common-Wealth by Institution, and of Succession to the Soveraigne Power
  24. Chapter XX — Of Dominion Paternall and Despoticall
  25. Chapter XXI — Of the Liberty of Subjects
  26. Chapter XXII — Of Systemes Subject, Politicall, and Private
  27. Chapter XXIII — Of the Publique Ministers of Soveraign Power
  28. Chapter XXIV — Of the Nutrition, and Procreation of a Common-Wealth
  29. Chapter XXV — Of Counsell
  30. Chapter XXVI — Of Civill Lawes
  31. Chapter XXVII — Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations
  32. Chapter XXVIII — Of Punishments, and Rewards
  33. Chapter XXIX — Of Those Things That Weaken, or Tend to the Dissolution of a Common-Wealth
  34. Chapter XXX — Of the Office of the Soveraign Representative
  35. Chapter XXXI — Of the Kingdome of God by Nature
  36. The Conclusion of the Second Part
  37. Part III — Of a Christian Common-Wealth
  38. Chapter XXXII — Of the Principles of Christian Politiques
  39. Chapter XXXIII — Of the Number, Antiquity, Scope, Authority, and Interpreters of the Books of Holy Scripture
  40. Chapter XXXIV — Of the Signification of Spirit, Angel, and Inspiration in the Books of Holy Scripture
  41. Chapter XXXV — Of the Signification in Scripture of Kingdome of God, of Holy, Sacred, and Sacrament
  42. Chapter XXXVI — Of the Word of God, and of Prophets
  43. Chapter XXXVII — Of Miracles, and Their Use
  44. Chapter XXXVIII — Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternall Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption
  45. Chapter XXXIX — Of the Signification in Scripture of the Word Church
  46. Chapter XL — Of the Rights of the Kingdome of God, in Abraham, Moses, High Priests, and the Kings of Judah
  47. Chapter XLI — Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour
  48. Chapter XLII — Of Power Ecclesiasticall
  49. Chapter XLIII — Of What Is Necessary for a Mans Reception Into the Kingdome of Heaven
  50. Part IV — Of the Kingdome of Darknesse
  51. Chapter XLIV — Of Spirituall Darknesse from Misinterpretation of Scripture
  52. Chapter XLV — Of Daemonology, and Other Reliques of the Religion of the Gentiles
  53. Chapter XLVI — Of Darknesse from Vain Philosophy, and Fabulous Traditions
  54. Chapter XLVII — Of the Benefit That Proceedeth from Such Darknesse, and to Whom It Accreweth

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Part of Political Thought.

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About the author

Thomas Hobbes

1588–1679 · 17th Century

A Bibliomancer biography of Thomas Hobbes is in preparation. See all their books.

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