The Nexus Archive
Social Contract Theory · Treatise
Leviathan
by Thomas Hobbes · The Philosopher of Fear · Early Modern, 1588-1679
Hobbes's great argument that fear, disorder, and civil war require a sovereign power strong enough to keep peace.
- Brutal
- 1651
- ~19 hr 30 min read
- 89 chapter guides
- Public domain
Start reading · Read the The Introduction and Chapter I: Of Sense guide free
Before the text
Editor's Prelude
The State Built Against Fear
Writing in 1651, amid the aftermath of England's civil wars, Thomas Hobbes asks what people owe a government that keeps them safe. Rival claims of crown, Parliament and church have made obedience a dangerous question. His answer begins with people who fear death, seek comfort and compete for respect. The book begins far below government, with sense, imagination, speech, appetite, pride, and fear.
This is an argument built one definition at a time. A commonwealth means people joined under a power that can act for them all. The giant on the title page gives that idea a body: many people form one figure holding a sword and a bishop's staff. The image joins the public powers whose division Hobbes fears.
Leviathan is severe because Hobbes thinks peace has a price. Yet subjects owe obedience only while the ruler can protect them, and Hobbes holds that no command can reach inward belief. His long arguments about Scripture matter because religious teachers also claim obedience. Beneath those disputes lies a human problem that runs through the book: how can frightened, ambitious people live together without making one another less safe?
The opening pages
Chapter II: Of Imagination
That when a thing lies still, unlesse somewhat els stirre it, it will lye still for ever, is a truth that no man doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be in motion, unless somewhat els stay it, though the reason be the same, (namely, that nothing can change it selfe,) is not so easily assented to. For men measure, not onely other men, but all other things, by themselves: and because they find themselves subject after motion to pain, and lassitude, think every thing els growes weary of motion, and seeks repose of its own accord; little considering, whether it be not some other motion, wherein that desire of rest they find in themselves, consisteth. From hence it is, that the Schooles say, Heavy bodies fall downwards, out of an appetite to rest, and to conserve their nature in that place which is most proper for them; ascribing appetite, and Knowledge of what is good for their conservation, (which is more than man has) to things inanimate absurdly.
When a Body is once in motion, it moveth (unless something els hinder it) eternally; and whatsoever hindreth it, cannot in an instant, but in time, and by degrees quite extinguish it: And as wee see in the water, though the wind cease, the waves give not over rowling for a long time after; so also it happeneth in that motion, which is made in the internall parts of a man, then, when he Sees, Dreams, &c. For after the object is removed, or the eye shut, wee still retain an image of the thing seen, though more obscure than when we see it. And this is it, that Latines call Imagination, from the image made in seeing; and apply the same, though improperly, to all the other senses. But the Greeks call it Fancy; which signifies Apparence, and is as proper to one sense, as to another. Imagination therefore is nothing but Decaying Sense; and is found in men, and many other living Creatures, as well sleeping, as waking.
Memory
The decay of Sense in men waking, is not the decay of the motion made in sense; but an obscuring of it, in such manner, as the light of the Sun obscureth the light of the Starres; which starrs do no less exercise their vertue by which they are visible, in the day, than in the night. But because amongst many stroaks, which our eyes, eares, and other organs receive from externall bodies, the predominant onely is sensible; therefore the light of the Sun being predominant, we are not affected with the action of the starrs. And any object being removed from our eyes, though the impression it made in us remain; yet other objects more present succeeding, and working on us, the Imagination of the past is obscured, and made weak; as the voyce of a man is in the noyse of the day. From whence it followeth, that the longer the time is, after the sight, or Sense of any object, the weaker is the Imagination. For the continuall change of mans body, destroyes in time the parts which in sense were moved: So that the distance of time, and of place, hath one and the same effect in us. …
Read it in a Quest
A direct encounter with power when justice, fear, and rule lose their illusions.
Chapter guides · 89
The Introduction and Chapter I: Of Sense
The Machine And The Senses
Hobbes presents the state as a human construction, then begins with the senses that supply human thought.
The argument
The commonwealth is an artificial person: its ruler, laws and public officers keep its parts working together. Hobbes proposes to understand that person through the people who make it. He starts with sense, which he explains as motion caused by outside bodies acting on our organs. What we experience as color or sound differs from the object producing it. He ends by rejecting obscure accounts of perception taught in universities.
Chapter II
Memory, Dream, And Imagination
For Hobbes, imagination is a fading sense impression. Memory and dreams continue motions that began with experience.
The argument
Imagination presents an absent object; memory considers that same impression as something past. Images can also combine into things never seen, such as a centaur. Dreams arise while outside impressions are weakened by sleep. Hobbes argues that mistaking dreams for real appearances helps explain fear of ghosts, while allowing that God can produce extraordinary appearances. He closes by distinguishing an animal's response to familiar words from human understanding of connected speech.
Chapter III
How Thoughts Follow Thoughts
A train of thought follows earlier experience, but a purpose can guide it toward a particular result.
Chapter IV
Words Make Reason Possible
Speech makes shared knowledge and agreements possible. It also lets people preserve errors and mislead one another.
Chapter V
Reason Needs Clear Names
For Hobbes, reasoning means calculating what follows from clearly defined names. A confident conclusion can still be wrong.
Chapter VI
Passion Moves The Person
Desire and aversion move people toward or away from things. Hobbes explains the will through these changing passions.
Chapter VII
Opinion, Belief, And Knowledge
A settled opinion is different from knowledge. Believing a report also involves trusting the person who gives it.
Chapter VIII: Wit, Judgment, and Passion
Wit, Judgment, And Passion
Quick imagination and sound judgment are different abilities. Hobbes links differences in thinking to people's interests and passions.
Chapter VIII: Madness and Abused Words
Madness And Abused Words
Hobbes challenges the claim that disordered behavior proves possession by a spirit. He also attacks speech that has no intelligible meaning.
Chapter IX
A Map Of Knowledge
Hobbes divides knowledge into knowledge of facts and knowledge of consequences. Political reasoning belongs in the second group.
Chapter X
Power, Honor, And Worth
Power is a person's present means of obtaining a future good. Honor shows how much power other people believe someone has.
Chapter XI
Why People Become Restless
Hobbes sees manners as the qualities that help or hinder peaceful life together. Restless desires continually shape those qualities.
Chapter XII: Religion Begins in Fear and Wonder
Religion Begins In Fear And Wonder
Anxiety about the future helps explain religious belief in Hobbes's account. People fear powers whose causes they cannot understand.
Chapter XII: How Religion Is Formed and Used
Religion Becomes Public Power
Religious practices can support government, but contradiction and self-interest can also destroy trust in religious leaders.
Chapter XIII
The War Before Government
Without a common power, fear and distrust make peace unreliable. Hobbes's state of war does not require fighting every minute.
Chapter XIV: Right, Liberty, and Contract
Right, Liberty, And Contract
A right permits someone to act; a law obliges them to act or refrain. Hobbes uses that distinction to explain agreements.
Chapter XIV: Covenants, Fear, and Oaths
Covenants, Fear, And Oaths
Fear does not automatically cancel a promise. Hobbes distinguishes binding covenants from promises that cannot require their own fulfillment.
Chapter XV: Justice and Covenant
Justice Needs Covenant
Justice means keeping valid covenants. Hobbes argues that apparent profit from breaking them is an unreliable guide to one's safety.
Chapter XV: The Other Laws of Nature
The Other Laws Of Peace
The remaining natural laws describe conduct that makes peace possible, including gratitude, forgiveness, equality and impartial judgment.
Chapter XVI
Persons And Representation
Representation lets many people act as one public person. Hobbes distinguishes the actor who performs an action from the author who owns it.
Chapter XVII
The Leviathan Is Born
Promises alone cannot keep people safe. Hobbes argues that a commonwealth needs a shared power able to enforce agreements.
Chapter XVIII
What Sovereignty Claims
The rights of sovereignty must remain together, Hobbes argues, because the commonwealth needs one final authority to preserve peace.
Chapter XIX: Forms of Commonwealth
Forms Of Commonwealth
Monarchy, aristocracy and democracy differ in who represents the people. Hobbes favors monarchy while admitting that it has dangers.
Chapter XIX: Succession and Stability
Succession And Stability
A state needs a way to continue after its ruler dies. Hobbes treats succession as part of the existing sovereign's authority.
Chapter XX
How Dominion Begins
Neither birth nor victory alone creates dominion in Hobbes's account. Authority depends on submission, protection or an existing agreement.
Chapter XXI: Freedom and Necessity
Freedom And Necessity
Freedom means the absence of outside barriers to action. Hobbes argues that fear and necessity can coexist with that freedom.
Chapter XXI: The True Liberty of Subjects
The True Liberty Of Subjects
Subjects retain a right to preserve their lives. Their obligation to obey also depends on the protection their sovereign can provide.
Chapter XXII: Systems and Subordinate Bodies
Systems Inside The State
Groups within a commonwealth can act through representatives, but their authority is limited. Only the commonwealth itself is independent.
Chapter XXII: Lawful and Unlawful Associations
When Groups Become Dangerous
An association becomes dangerous when it gathers power against public authority. Its purpose and circumstances help determine whether it is lawful.
Chapter XXIII
Public Ministers Borrow Authority
A public minister acts in the sovereign's public capacity. Serving the ruler privately is a different kind of employment.
Chapter XXIV
How A Commonwealth Is Fed
A commonwealth needs goods, labor and exchange to sustain it. Hobbes connects their distribution and circulation with public authority.
Chapter XXV
Counsel Is Not Command
Hobbes separates advice from command. Good counsel serves the person who receives it, while command expresses the will of someone with authority to be obeyed.
Chapter XXVI: Civil Law as Command
Civil Law As Command
Civil law is the commonwealth's command about right and wrong. Hobbes locates its authority in the present sovereign, rather than in age or custom alone.
Chapter XXVI: Interpretation and the Judge
Interpretation Belongs To Public Judgment
A law needs a known author and an authorized interpretation. Hobbes distinguishes identifying a command from giving it legal force.
Chapter XXVI: Natural, Divine, and Fundamental Law
Natural, Divine, And Fundamental Law
Understanding a law requires attention to its intended meaning. Hobbes then distinguishes kinds of law, liberty and legal exemption.
Chapter XXVII: Sin, Ignorance, and Excuse
Sin, Ignorance, And Excuse
A crime is an outward act or omission that can be accused. Sin can also include a wrongful intention that never becomes an act.
Chapter XXVII: Crime, Fear, and Public Injury
Crime As Public Injury
Crimes differ in seriousness. Hobbes weighs their causes, harmful example, effects and circumstances rather than treating every offense alike.
Chapter XXVIII
Punishment Serves The Commonwealth
Punishment, for Hobbes, is not private revenge. It belongs to public authority and must aim at future obedience.
Chapter XXIX: False Doctrine and Dissolution
False Doctrine And Dissolution
A state can be weakened by its own founding rules and teachings. Hobbes especially fears claims that divide its final authority.
Chapter XXIX: Divided Sovereignty and Political Disease
Divided Sovereignty And Political Disease
Competing final authorities can pull a state apart. Hobbes extends that warning into a broader account of political weakness.
Chapter XXX: Safety and Public Teaching
Safety Is the Sovereign's Work
Hobbes begins the duties of the sovereign with safety, but he means more than bare survival. Public teaching helps make that safety possible.
Chapter XXX: Care of the Commonwealth
Care Of The Commonwealth
Strong government has duties toward ordinary life. Hobbes connects equal justice, public support and useful laws with the people's safety.
Chapter XXX: Counsel, Commanders, and Nations
Counsel, Commanders, And Nations
A sovereign needs capable advisers and loyal commanders. Hobbes ends by applying natural law to relations between states.
Chapter XXXI: God's Natural Kingdom
God's Natural Kingdom
Hobbes distinguishes God's unlimited power from a kingdom whose subjects recognize divine commands. He begins with duties known through reason.
Chapter XXXI: Worship and Natural Law
Worship And Natural Law
Worship should express the greatest honor people can offer God. Hobbes argues that public worship must have an authorized, shared form.
Chapter XXXII
Christian Politics Begins With Scripture
Christian politics requires reason as well as Scripture. A person's claim to receive revelation does not by itself oblige others to believe it.
Chapter XXXIII: The Books of Scripture
The Books Of Scripture
A book's title does not prove who wrote it. Hobbes uses clues inside Scripture to distinguish ancient events from their later written accounts.
Chapter XXXIII: Scripture and Public Authority
Scripture And Public Authority
Hobbes separates believing Scripture from giving it the force of law. The power to authorize a law also includes its public interpretation.
Chapter XXXIV: Spirit, Body, and Scripture
Spirit, Body, And Hard Words
The word spirit can refer to a body, a disposition, a gift or life itself. Hobbes argues that context determines its meaning.
Chapter XXXIV: Angels and Inspiration
Angels And Inspiration
Hobbes accepts permanent angels while rejecting the claim that they are substances existing nowhere. Inspiration, too, needs careful interpretation.
Chapter XXXV
Holy Things And Public Order
Hobbes reads the kingdom of God chiefly as an actual covenant government. He connects holy things with what has been set apart for that government.
Chapter XXXVI: The Word of God and Prophecy
The Word Of God And Prophecy
The word of God can mean speech from God or teaching about God. Hobbes distinguishes these meanings before examining prophecy.
Chapter XXXVI: How God Speaks
How God Speaks
Hobbes distinguishes extraordinary prophetic messages from a continuing public office. Their authority and manner of communication need not be the same.
Chapter XXXVI: Testing Prophets
Testing Prophets
A claim to speak for God is also a claim on obedience. Hobbes argues that competing claims require tests and a public decision.
Chapter XXXVII
Miracles Need Judgment
A miracle is an extraordinary act of God that establishes a messenger's mission. Wonder alone cannot prove that such an act has occurred.
Chapter XXXVIII: Resurrection and the Kingdom
Resurrection And The Kingdom
Hobbes argues that eternal life is a future gift restored through resurrection. He does not treat it as a natural possession of every human soul.
Chapter XXXVIII: Hell, Salvation, and Redemption
Hell, Salvation, And Redemption
Everlasting punishment does not prove that every punished person lives forever, Hobbes argues. Salvation instead means release from death and misery.
Chapter XXXIX
What A Church Is
Hobbes defines a church capable of public action as Christians united under one sovereign. A shared faith alone does not make every Christian one governing body.
Chapter XL: Abraham, Moses, and Covenant
Abraham, Moses, And Covenant
Hobbes uses Abraham and Moses to argue for one public authority over religious commands. He also makes people's consent essential to Moses's rule.
Chapter XL: Priests, Kings, and Covenant
Priests, Kings, And Covenant
Civil and religious authority belong together by right in Hobbes's reading of Israel. He distinguishes that claim from what rulers could actually enforce.
Chapter XLI
The Three Offices of Christ
Christ's work has three parts in Hobbes's account: redemption, teaching and future kingship. Their different times explain why believers still owe present civil obedience.
Chapter XLII: Ecclesiastical Power and Teaching
Church Power Begins With Teaching
Hobbes treats ecclesiastical authority as a commission to teach and persuade. It does not itself give ministers a right to govern by force.
Chapter XLII: Commission and the Keys
Commission And The Keys
The keys of heaven concern admission and exclusion, not independent civil rule. Hobbes connects them with baptism and the signs of repentance.
Chapter XLII: Limits of Excommunication
Limits Of Excommunication
Excommunication cannot cancel civil or family obligations. Hobbes limits church discipline to the authority and purpose of the congregation itself.
Chapter XLII: Old Testament Canon and Law
Old Testament Canon And Law
Scripture can guide belief without yet being public law. Hobbes distinguishes a persuasive interpretation from one that people are legally bound to accept.
Chapter XLII: New Testament Canon and Councils
New Testament Canon And Councils
Hobbes argues that the New Testament became compulsory public law through Christian sovereigns. Earlier acceptance by believers was a different kind of authority.
Chapter XLII: Officers and Ordination
Officers And Ordination
A church office requires a recognized appointment, not merely an impressive gift. Hobbes argues that early congregations chose their own teachers.
Chapter XLII: Church Revenue and Pastors
Revenue And Pastors
Church teachers need support, but they cannot simply claim an independent right to take it. Hobbes connects enforceable maintenance with civil authority.
Chapter XLII: Sovereign as Supreme Pastor
The Sovereign As Supreme Pastor
In a Christian commonwealth, Hobbes makes the sovereign the supreme pastor. Other pastors receive public authority through that sovereign.
Chapter XLII: Bellarmine and Papal Claims
Answering Papal Claims
Hobbes disputes the case for universal papal authority made by Cardinal Bellarmine, a leading Catholic defender of the Pope. He also expressly rejects calling the Pope Antichrist in the biblical sense.
Chapter XLII: Papal Infallibility and Lawmaking
Papal Infallibility And Lawmaking
Sound teaching and lawful jurisdiction are different things. Hobbes argues that even freedom from error would not give the Pope authority over another ruler's subjects.
Chapter XLII: Bishops and Papal Jurisdiction
Bishops And Papal Jurisdiction
Hobbes makes bishops' jurisdiction depend on the civil sovereign. He denies that the Pope can give them a universal authority he does not himself possess.
Chapter XLII: Papal Temporal Power
No Rival Throne
Calling papal power indirect does not remove its political force. Hobbes argues that a right to depose rulers would still make the Pope their sovereign.
Chapter XLIII: Faith and Civil Obedience
Faith And Civil Obedience
Hobbes joins faith in Christ with a sincere effort to obey God's laws. Perfect innocence is not the condition he requires for salvation.
Chapter XLIII: Confession, Justification, and Charity
Confession, Charity, And Peace
Faith and willing obedience work together in Hobbes's account of salvation. Other beliefs can be contained within the confession that Jesus is the Christ.
Chapter XLIV: Darkness and Misread Scripture
The Kingdom Of Darkness
Hobbes calls spiritual darkness a human effort to gain power through misleading teaching. He argues that Christians, too, remain vulnerable to it.
Chapter XLIV: Consecration, Purgatory, and Spirits
Consecration, Purgatory, And Spirits
Consecration sets something apart for religious use; it does not change its substance. Hobbes attacks practices that confuse dedication with supernatural transformation.
Chapter XLIV: Hell, Death, and Eternal Life
Death, Hell, And Eternal Life
Hobbes interprets promises of future life through resurrection, not an automatically immortal soul. His wicked, too, rise for judgment and punishment.
Chapter XLIV: Hobbes Answers Purgatory Texts
Hobbes Answers Purgatory Texts
Hobbes argues that the passages offered for purgatory do not establish it. He openly marks some alternative interpretations as uncertain.
Chapter XLV: Apparitions and Daemons
Apparitions And Daemons
Hobbes accepts angels and spirits, but rejects the claim that incorporeal beings inhabit people's bodies. He connects that claim with misunderstanding imagination.
Chapter XLV: Images and Worship
Images And Worship
A gesture is not idolatrous simply because it resembles worship. Hobbes distinguishes honoring a human being, worshipping God and inventing a divine power.
Chapter XLV: Saints, Relics, and Representation
Worship and the Teacher's Example
Someone's example can mislead others even when their outward worship is insincere. Hobbes places a particular responsibility on religious teachers.
Chapter XLV: Roman Customs and Pagan Relics
Roman Customs And Pagan Relics
Hobbes allows pictures as imagined art or memorials. His objection concerns treating them as divine representations or as beings able to hear prayers.
Chapter XLVI: Philosophy and the Schools
Philosophy And The Schools
Philosophy is knowledge gained by reasoning about causes and effects. Hobbes distinguishes it from experience, revelation and trust in an author.
Chapter XLVI: Metaphysical Darkness
Metaphysical Darkness
Giving an abstract word a name does not prove that it names a separate thing. Hobbes argues that this mistake supports confused religious and scientific explanations.
Chapter XLVI: Political Errors and Tradition
Political Errors And Tradition
Hobbes attacks teachings that confuse private opinion with public law. He also rejects attempts to force people to disclose their inward beliefs.
Chapter XLVII
Who Benefits From Darkness
Who benefits from a doctrine is evidence about who promotes it. Hobbes uses that test to accuse clerical institutions of building power through confusion.
A Review, And Conclusion: Civil Obedience
Civil Obedience After Conquest
Protection and obedience belong together in Hobbes's account of conquest. A military victory alone does not make every defeated person a subject.
A Review, And Conclusion: Final Defense
Peace Is The Final Aim
Hobbes closes by defending public judgment against private religious violence. He returns to the mutual duties of protection and obedience.
Questions readers ask
- How long does it take to read Leviathan?
- About 19 hr 30 min in total.
- How difficult is Leviathan?
- Brutal. A long treatise; about 20 hours of reading.
- Can I read Leviathan for free?
- Leviathan is part of Nexus Premium, so reading it needs an account and a Premium subscription. The opening above and two chapter guides on this page are free to read.
- How many chapter guides are there?
- 89 chapter guides, written by the Nexus editors. Two open in full here; the rest show their opening line.
About Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher whose Leviathan argued for sovereign authority as the answer to civil war and the insecurity of the state of nature. His work shaped modern political theory through fear, contract, power, and peace.
“What authority is needed to keep human beings from destroying one another?”
Hobbes is essential to any progression on political order because he begins from the terror of disorder, not the romance of liberty.
Source text: public domain. Chapter guides: original Nexus writing. Leviathan is part of The Nexus Archive, guided Quests through the great works.