Leviathan: Or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil

by Thomas Hobbes

Overview

A cornerstone of modern western philosophy, addressing the role of man in government, society and religion

In 1651, Hobbes published his work about the relationship between the government and the individual. More than four centuries old, this brilliant yet ruthless book analyzes not only the bases of government but also physical nature and the roles of man.

Comparable to Plato's Republic in depth and insight, Leviathan includes two society-changing phenomena that Plato didn't dare to dream of — the rise of great nation-states with their claims to absolute sovereignty, and modern science, with its unprecedented analytic power. To Hobbes, the leviathan — a mythical sea creature described in the Old Testament — represented his central thesis: that the state must be strong in order to control and protect its citizens. Even today, Hobbes's thesis in Leviathan is debated among scholars and philosophy aficionados around the globe.

One of the earliest attempts at a genuinely scientific understanding of politics and society in their modern form, this book also remains one of the most stimulating. In his timeless work, Hobbes outlines his ideas about the passions and the conduct of man, and how his theories are realized in every individual. Addressing free will and religion, Hobbes constructs an intelligent argument for the basis of religion within government and how to organize a peaceful and successful Christian commonwealth.

Like Plato's Republic, this book contains ideas on psychology, ethics, law, language, and religion that continue to challenge modern thinkers and exercise a profound influence on Western thought. A classic treatise of philosophy, Leviathan is critical reading for anyone who wishes to examine the human mind through the prisms of government and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416573609
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	11/18/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy. An Englishman, Hobbes was heavily influenced by his country's civil war and wrote his preeminent work, Leviathan, about the relationship between the individual and the government during that period. Hobbes was a scholar, phauthoilosopher, and the author of several works on political and religious philosophy.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
Of Sense

Sense. Concerning the thoughts of man, I will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train, or dependence upon one another. Singly, they are every one a representation or appearance, of some quality, or other accident of a body without us, which is commonly called an object. Which object worketh on the eyes, ears, and other parts of a man's body; and by diversity of working, produceth diversity of appearances.

The original of them all, is that which we call SENSE, for there is no conception in a man's mind, which hath not at first, totally, or by parts, been begotten upon the organs of sense. The rest are derived from that original.

To know the natural cause of sense, is not very necessary to the business now in hand; and I have elsewhere written of the same at large. Nevertheless, to fill each part of my present method, I will briefly deliver the same in this place.

The cause of sense, is the external body, or object, which presseth the organ proper to each sense, either immediately, as in the taste and touch; or mediately, as in seeing, hearing, and smelling; which pressure, by the mediation of the nerves, and other strings and membranes of the body, continued inwards to the brain and heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter-pressure, or endeavour of the heart to deliver itself, which endeavour, because outward, seemeth to be some matter without. And this seeming, or fancy, is that which men call sense; and consisteth, as to the eye, in a light, or colour figured; to the ear, in a sound; to the nostril, in an odour; to the tongue and palate, in a savour; and to the rest of the body, in heat, cold, hardness, softness, and such other qualities as we discern by feeling. All which qualities, called sensible, are in the object, that causeth them, but so many several motions of the matter, by which it presseth our organs diversely. Neither in us that are pressed, are they any thing else, but divers motions; for motion produceth nothing but motion. But their appearance to us is fancy, the same waking, that dreaming. And as pressing, rubbing, or striking the eye, makes us fancy a light; and pressing the ear, produceth a din; so do the bodies also we see, or hear, produce the same by their strong, though unobserved action. For if these colours and sounds were in the bodies, or objects that cause them, they could not be severed from them, as by glasses, and in echoes by reflection, we see they are; where we know the thing we see is in one place, the appearance in another. And though at some certain distance, the real and very object seem invested with the fancy it begets in us; yet the object is one thing, the image or fancy is another. So that sense, in all cases, is nothing else but original fancy, caused, as I have said, by the pressure, that is, by the motion, of external things upon our eyes, ears, and other organs thereunto ordained.

But the philosophy-schools, through all the universities of Christendom, grounded upon certain texts of Aristotle, teach another doctrine, and say, for the cause of vision, that the thing seen, sendeth forth on every side a visible species, in English, a visible show, apparition, or aspect, or a being seen; the receiving whereof into the eye, is seeing. And for the cause of hearing, that the thing heard, sendeth forth an audible species, that is an audible aspect, or audible being seen; which entering at the ear, maketh hearing. Nay, for the cause of understanding also, they say the thing understood, sendeth forth an intelligible species, that is, an intelligible being seen; which, coming into the understanding, makes us understand. I say not this, as disproving the use of universities; but because I am to speak hereafter of their office in a commonwealth, I must let you see on all occasions by the way, what things would be amended in them; amongst which the frequency of insignificant speech is one. Copyright © 1962 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction Author's Introduction

The First Part / Of Man

1 Of Sense
2 Of Imagination
3 Of the Consequence or Train of Imaginations
4 Of Speech
5 Of Reason and Science
6 Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions, commonly called the Passions; and the Speeches by which they are expressed
7 Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse
8 Of the Virtues, commonly called Intellectual; and their contrary Defects
9 Of the Several Subjects of Knowledge
10 Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour, and Worthiness
11 Of the Difference of Manners
12 Of Religion
13 Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as concerning their Felicity and Misery
14 Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of Contracts
15 Of other Laws of Nature
16 Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated

The Second Part / Of Commonwealth

17 Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth
18 Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution
19 Of the several kinds of Commonwealth by Institution; and of Succession to the Sovereign Power
20 Of Dominion Paternal, and Despotical
21 Of the Liberty of Subjects
22 Of Systems Subject, Political, and Private
23 Of the Public Ministers of Sovereign Power
24 Of the Nutrition, and Procreation of a Commonwealth
25 Of Counsel
26 Of Civil Laws
27 Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations
28 Of Punishments, and Rewards
29 Of those things that weaken, or tend to the Dissolution of a Commonwealth
30 Of the Office of the Sovereign Representative
31 Of the Kingdom of God by Nature

The Third Part / Of a Christian Commonwealth

32 Of the Principles of Christian Politics
33 Of the Number, Antiquity, Scope, Authority, and Interpreters of the Books of Holy Scripture
34 Of the Signification of Spirit, Angel, and Inspiration, in the Books of Holy Scripture
35 Of the Signification in Scripture of the Kingdom of God, of Holy, Sacred, and Sacrament
36 Of the Word of God, and of Prophets
37 Of Miracles, and their Use
38 Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption
39 Of the Signification in Scripture of the word Church
40 Of the Rights of the Kingdom of God, in Abraham, Moses, the High-Priests, and the Kings of Judah
41 Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour
42 Of Power Ecclesiastical
43 Of what is Necessary for a Man's Reception into the Kingdom of Heaven

The Fourth Part / Of the Kingdom of Darkness

44 Of Spiritual Darkness, from Misinterpretation of Scripture
45 Of Demonology, and other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles
46 Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy, and Fabulous Traditions
47 Of the Benefit that proceedeth from such Darkness; and to whom it accrueth

A Review, and Conclusion