Leviathan

Summary

The Problem: Hobbes starts by imagining what life would be like without any government, a situation he calls the "state of nature." Based on his view of human nature (self-interested, seeking power, roughly equal in ability), he argues this state would be a "war of all against all," where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." There's no security, no industry, no culture, just constant fear.

The Solution: To escape this horrific state, Hobbes argues that rational individuals would agree (in a hypothetical "social contract") to give up almost all their natural rights and submit themselves to an absolute sovereign power (a monarch or an assembly).

The Sovereign (The Leviathan): This sovereign entity (which Hobbes metaphorically calls "Leviathan," after a biblical sea monster) must have absolute and indivisible authority to enforce laws, punish dissent, control opinion, make war and peace, etc. Its primary job is to maintain peace and order, preventing society from collapsing back into the state of nature. Any abuse of power by the sovereign is considered better than the chaos of anarchy.

Subordination of Religion: A large part of the book (especially Parts III and IV) argues that religious authority must be subordinate to the civil sovereign to prevent religious conflicts from tearing society apart (a major issue during the English Civil War, which heavily influenced Hobbes).

Historical Context: It was written during and immediately after the English Civil War (1642-1651). Hobbes's overwhelming concern was preventing civil war and chaos. His solution — absolute power — was a direct response to the breakdown of order he witnessed. Today, our primary political concerns often revolve around protecting individual liberties from state overreach, the opposite of Hobbes's focus.

Part I: Of Man

• Chapter 1: Of Sense: All human thought originates from external bodies pressing on sense organs, creating sensations (sight, sound, etc.).
• Chapter 2: Of Imagination: Imagination is "decaying sense," the lingering effect of sensation after the external object is gone. Memory is imagination related to past sensation. Dreams are imagination during sleep.
• Chapter 3: Of the Consequence or Train of Imaginations: Thoughts follow each other in sequences, either unguided (random association) or regulated (seeking causes or effects).
• Chapter 4: Of Speech: Speech allows humans to register thoughts, recall them, and communicate them. Defines names, propositions, and the importance of clear definitions. Discusses abuses of speech.
• Chapter 5: Of Reason and Science: Reason is reckoning (adding and subtracting) the consequences of general names agreed upon. Science is the knowledge of consequences derived from definitions. Errors in reasoning lead to absurdity.
• Chapter 6: Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions commonly called the Passions: Introduces "endeavour" – tiny motions within the body. Appetite (motion towards something) and Aversion (motion away) are the basis of all passions (love, hate, joy, fear, etc.). Good and evil are relative to individual appetites and aversions.
• Chapter 7: Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse: Judgment is the final opinion in a search for truth. Doubt is hesitation. Deliberation is the alternation of appetites and aversions regarding an action. The Will is the final appetite or aversion in deliberation, leading immediately to action or omission.
• Chapter 8: Of the Virtues Commonly Called Intellectual, and their Contrary Defects: Discusses natural wit (quickness of imagination, judgment) and acquired wit (reason, science). Madness is seen as resulting from excessive passions or disordered thought.
• Chapter 9: Of the Several Subjects of Knowledge: Divides knowledge into History (knowledge of facts) and Science/Philosophy (knowledge of consequences, or cause and effect).
• Chapter 10: Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour, and Worthiness: Defines Power as one's present means to obtain some future apparent good. Worth is the measure of power valued by others. Honour is the manifestation of value placed on someone.
• Chapter 11: Of the Difference of Manners: Manners are qualities affecting social life. Argues humans have a "perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death," leading to competition.
• Chapter 12: Of Religion: Religion originates from anxiety about the future and the search for causes, leading to belief in invisible powers (gods). While the seed of religion is natural, specific religions are culturally shaped.
• Chapter 13: Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as concerning their Felicity and Misery: Describes the "State of Nature" where humans exist without a common power. Humans are roughly equal in body and mind, leading to competition, diffidence (distrust), and glory (seeking reputation). This results in a "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes), where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." In this state, there is no industry, culture, justice, or injustice.
• Chapter 14: Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of Contracts: Introduces the Right of Nature (liberty to use one's power for self-preservation) and Laws of Nature (precepts found by reason, forbidding self-destruction). First Law: Seek peace and follow it. Second Law: Be willing to lay down the right to all things (if others do too) for the sake of peace, retaining only as much liberty against others as one would allow them against oneself. Defines contracts and covenants (contracts involving future performance).
• Chapter 15: Of Other Laws of Nature: Lists further laws of nature derived from the first two: justice (performing covenants), gratitude, mutual accommodation (complaisance), pardon, avoiding cruelty in revenge, avoiding contempt (contumely), avoiding pride, avoiding arrogance, equity, common use of indivisible things, settling disputes by lot or primogeniture, safe conduct for mediators, submission to arbitration. These are dictates of reason promoting peace and self-preservation.
• Chapter 16: Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated: Defines a Person as one whose words or actions are considered their own (Natural Person) or as representing another (Artificial Person). An Author owns the words/actions; an Actor represents the Author. This lays groundwork for the sovereign as an artificial person representing the people.

Part II: Commonwealth

• Chapter 17: Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth: Men leave the state of nature out of fear of death and desire for a more commodious life, realizing the laws of nature are insufficient without enforcement. The Commonwealth is created when people mutually covenant to transfer their rights (except self-preservation) to a sovereign power (one man or an assembly) authorized to act for their peace and common defense. This sovereign is the Leviathan.
• Chapter 18: Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution: Describes the absolute and indivisible rights of the sovereign established by covenant: subjects cannot change the form of government or withdraw allegiance; the sovereign cannot forfeit power; dissenters must consent to the majority's choice; the sovereign's actions cannot be justly accused or punished by subjects; the sovereign judges doctrines, property, disputes; makes war/peace; chooses counselors/ministers; rewards/punishes; sets honors.
• Chapter 19: Of the Several Kinds of Commonwealth by Institution, and of Succession to the Sovereign Power: Identifies three types of commonwealth: Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy. Argues Monarchy is the most effective because the monarch's private interest is most closely aligned with the public interest. Discusses the importance of clear rules for succession.
• Chapter 20: Of Dominion Paternal and Despotical: Sovereignty can also be acquired by force (conquest). Acquired sovereignty ("despotical dominion") has the same rights as sovereignty by institution. Paternal dominion (over children) also derives from consent (explicit or implicit). Fear is the motivator in both cases.
• Chapter 21: Of the Liberty of Subjects: Liberty is the absence of external impediments. In a commonwealth, subject liberty consists in things the sovereign permits, actions where the law is silent, and the retained right of self-preservation (e.g., refusing dangerous orders, not self-incriminating without assurance of pardon). Obligation to the sovereign lasts only as long as the sovereign provides protection.
• Chapter 22: Of Systems Subject, Political, and Private: Discusses various types of groups ("systems") within the commonwealth, such as political bodies (provinces, corporations) and private bodies (families, businesses), all subordinate to the sovereign.
• Chapter 23: Of the Public Ministers of Sovereign Power: Describes the role of ministers appointed by the sovereign to administer various functions of government (justice, treasury, military, instruction).
• Chapter 24: Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Commonwealth: Discusses the economy: resources, distribution of property (determined by sovereign), trade, and money as the "blood" of the commonwealth.
• Chapter 25: Of Counsel: Distinguishes counsel (advice given for the benefit of the recipient) from command (an order given for the benefit of the commander). The sovereign should seek good counsel but retains sole decision-making power.
• Chapter 26: Of Civil Laws: Civil Law is the command of the sovereign, specifying rules for subjects. The sovereign is the legislator but is not subject to the civil laws. Laws must be known (promulgated) and require interpretation (ultimately by the sovereign). Natural law and civil law contain each other.
• Chapter 27: Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations: A crime is a sin consisting in breaking a civil law. Defines causes of crime (ignorance, flawed reasoning, passions) and distinguishes factors that excuse a crime (lack of law, fear of death) from those that lessen blame (provocation, passion).
• Chapter 28: Of Punishments and Rewards: Punishment is an evil inflicted by public authority on a lawbreaker to dispose men towards obedience. It must follow a public trial and be determined by law. Rewards are used by the sovereign to encourage service.
• Chapter 29: Of those things that Weaken, or tend to the Dissolution of a Commonwealth: Lists internal "diseases" that can destroy a commonwealth: insufficient sovereign power, seditious doctrines (private judgment superior to law, sovereign subject to laws, claims of divine inspiration challenging sovereign), lack of funds, powerful subjects, large private armies, etc.
• Chapter 30: Of the Office of the Sovereign Representative: The sovereign's duty is the "safety of the people" (salus populi), encompassing not just bare preservation but also a contented life. This requires maintaining absolute rights, instructing citizens, administering equal justice, providing for the needy, and making good laws (necessary, clear, few).
• Chapter 31: Of the Kingdom of God by Nature: Explores God's sovereignty based on His irresistible power, known through natural reason. The laws of nature are God's laws. Discusses natural worship and attributes of God discoverable by reason. Obedience to the civil sovereign is compatible with obedience to God's natural laws.

Part III: Of a Christian Commonwealth

reconciling Christian doctrine and scripture with the principles of sovereignty

• Chapter 32: Of the Principles of Christian Politics: Addresses the potential conflict between obeying God and obeying man, particularly when God's commands are known via Scripture. Emphasizes the need for authorized interpretation.
• Chapter 33: Of the Number, Antiquity, Scope, Authority, and Interpreters of the Books of Holy Scripture: Examines the biblical canon and argues that the authority to determine which books are canonical and how they are interpreted rests with the sovereign in a Christian commonwealth.
• Chapter 34: Of the Signification of Spirit, Angel, and Inspiration in the Books of Holy Scripture: Analyzes biblical language, often arguing for metaphorical or physical interpretations over purely spiritual ones (e.g., spirit as disposition or subtle body).
• Chapter 35: Of the Signification in Scripture of Kingdom of God, Holy, Sacred, and Sacrament: Interprets key religious terms within a political framework. The Kingdom of God can refer to God's natural rule, His specific rule over Israel, or the future heavenly kingdom.
• Chapter 36: Of the Word of God, and of Prophets: Discusses different meanings of "Word of God" (reason, revelation, scripture). True prophets are hard to discern; ultimately, the sovereign judges claims to prophecy within the commonwealth.
• Chapter 37: Of Miracles and their Use: Miracles are works that cause wonder and are attributed to God, used to gain credibility for His messengers. Belief in miracles depends on context; the sovereign judges public claims.
• Chapter 38: Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption: Offers interpretations minimizing conflict with sovereign power, e.g., arguing eternal life occurs after resurrection on a purified Earth, and hell often signifies the grave or earthly suffering.
• Chapter 39: Of the Signification in Scripture of the word Church: Argues the Church is an assembly of Christian men. There is no universal political church on earth; in each nation, the church is subject to the civil sovereign.
• Chapter 40: Of the Rights of the Kingdom of God, in Abraham, Moses, the High Priests, and the Kings of Judah: Traces God's literal political kingdom over the Jews, established by covenant, showing how sovereign power was exercised through figures like Moses and the Kings.
• Chapter 41: Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour: Christ's role was primarily as a teacher and advisor, preparing for his future kingdom, not as a temporal ruler during his life. He commanded obedience to existing civil powers.
• Chapter 42: Of Power Ecclesiastical: The longest chapter, systematically arguing against any independent political or coercive power held by the Pope, bishops, or presbyteries. All ecclesiastical authority (teaching, ordination, excommunication) affecting civil life derives from the Christian sovereign, who is the supreme pastor.
• Chapter 43: Of what is Necessary for a Man's Reception into the Kingdom of Heaven: Argues the only necessary articles of faith are that Jesus is the Christ, combined with obedience to the laws (God's natural laws and the sovereign's civil laws). In cases of apparent conflict, one must generally obey the sovereign, as direct, certain commands from God are rare and not binding on others unless validated by the sovereign.

Part IV: Of the Kingdom of Darkness

Critiques forces that oppose enlightenment and civil peace, primarily misinterpretations of religion and philosophy

• Chapter 44: Of Spiritual Darkness from Misinterpretation of Scripture: Identifies errors arising from misreading scripture that serve to undermine civil authority and promote ecclesiastical power, such as claiming the Church is the Kingdom of God now, belief in eternal torment for the masses, papal supremacy, and demonology.
• Chapter 45: Of Demonology and other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles: Critiques beliefs in demons, exorcism, ghosts, etc., as superstitious remnants of paganism incorporated into Christianity, often used to manipulate the fearful.
• Chapter 46: Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy and Fabulous Traditions: Attacks Aristotelian and Scholastic philosophy ("vain philosophy") for introducing obscure and meaningless concepts (like incorporeal substances, separated essences) that confuse understanding and support false religious doctrines (like transubstantiation).
• Chapter 47: Of the Benefit that proceedeth from such Darkness, and to whom it Accrueth: Concludes that these errors and obscurities primarily benefit the Papacy and ambitious clergy seeking worldly power and wealth by deceiving the people and usurping civil authority. Reaffirms the principles of the book as conducive to peace and enlightenment.

Quotes

Part I

Chapter 1

All thoughts come from sensory experience:

"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... 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)." (Chapter 1)  

Chapter 11

Humans are driven by an unending quest for power:

So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Chapter 13

Humans are fundamentally equal in their capabilities

Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind, as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.

So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation.

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.

On life in the state of nature: civilization is impossible and everyone is miserable.

In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain... no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

There is also no justice, or right or wrong, in the state of nature:

To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent: that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice.

Part II

Chapter 17

The Definition Of A Common-wealth And in him consisteth the Essence of the Common-wealth; which (to define it,) is "One Person, of whose Acts a great Multitude, by mutuall Covenants one with another, have made themselves every one the Author, to the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he shall think expedient, for their Peace and Common Defence."

Soveraigne, And Subject, What And he that carryeth this Person, as called SOVERAIGNE, and said to have Soveraigne Power; and every one besides, his SUBJECT.

The attaining to this Soveraigne Power, is by two wayes. One, by Naturall force; as when a man maketh his children, to submit themselves, and their children to his government, as being able to destroy them if they refuse, or by Warre subdueth his enemies to his will, giving them their lives on that condition. The other, is when men agree amongst themselves, to submit to some Man, or Assembly of men, voluntarily, on confidence to be protected by him against all others. This later, may be called a Politicall Common-wealth, or Common-wealth by Institution; and the former, a Common-wealth by Acquisition. And first, I shall speak of a Common-wealth by Institution.

The final cause, end, or design of men (who naturally love liberty, and dominion over others) in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves, in which we see them live in Commonwealths, is the foresight of their own preservation, and of a more contented life thereby; that is to say, of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as hath been shown, to the natural passions of men when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants, and observation of those laws of nature set down in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters.

The formula for the social contract:

I authorize and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner.

This is the generation of that great LEVIATHAN, or rather (to speak more reverently) of that mortal god to which we owe, under the immortal God, our peace and defence.

Chapter 21

Freedom only exists if the sovereign has not made a law about it:

The liberty of a subject lieth therefore only in those things which, in regulating their actions, the sovereign hath praetermitted [omitted]: such as is the liberty to buy and sell and otherwise contract with one another; to choose their own abode, their own diet, their own trade of life, and institute their children as they themselves think fit; and the like.

On the right to self-preservation - basically, this is the (only??) natural/inalienable right, because the whole reason you joined the sovereignty was to preserve yourself.

If the sovereign command a man (though justly condemned) to kill, wound, or maim himself; or not to resist those that assault him; or to abstain from the use of food, air, medicine, or any other thing without which he cannot live, yet hath that man the liberty to disobey.