Leviathan

Chapter-by-chapter summary

Leviathan has 47 chapters in four parts: Of Man, Of Common-wealth, Of a Christian Common-wealth, and Of the Kingdom of Darkness. This section follows the book in eight groups so the argument stays easy to follow.

Introduction and Chapters 1–9: The Machinery of the Mind

Hobbes opens by calling the state an ‘artificial man’, a giant built by people to protect the natural people inside it. He then studies the human being as a kind of machine. Sensation comes from outside pressure on the body, imagination is a fading sense, and reason is a form of reckoning, adding and subtracting names. Speech makes this possible, but careless words can also mislead. Why it matters: Hobbes wants to show that humans are predictable enough to be governed by clear rules, not by vague ideals.

Chapters 10–13: Power, Equality and the War of All Against All

Hobbes defines power as a person's present means to get some future good. People keep wanting more of it, he says, because they can never be sure of keeping what they have. Chapter 13 argues that people are roughly equal, since even the weak can kill the strong. Quarrels come from competition, distrust and the wish for glory. With no common power, life becomes ‘a warre of every man against every man’, with no industry or arts, and it turns ‘solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short’. Why it matters: this is the problem the rest of the book sets out to solve.

Chapters 14–16: Natural Rights, Natural Laws and Covenants

In the state of nature, each person has a right to do whatever he judges necessary to stay alive. Reason, however, points to laws of nature: seek peace when there is hope of getting it, give up your right to everything if others will too, and keep the agreements you make. Chapter 16 introduces persons, authors and representatives. Someone can act in another's name, and the author owns those actions. Why it matters: these ideas turn fear of violence into a logic of agreement, and they prepare the sovereign as a representative of everyone.

Chapters 17–19: How a Commonwealth Is Made

Laws of nature are not enough, because ‘Covenants, without the Sword, are but Words’. People need a power strong enough to hold them to their promises. Hobbes pictures each person agreeing with every other to give up the right of self-government to one man or one assembly, on condition that the others do the same. The result is a commonwealth, which he calls a ‘mortal god’. Chapter 18 sets out the sovereign's rights, and Chapter 19 compares monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, preferring monarchy. Why it matters: this is the core social-contract argument.

Chapters 20–24: The Liberty of Subjects

Chapter 20 compares commonwealths formed by agreement with those won by conquest, and explains a parent's authority in similar terms. Chapter 21 gives Hobbes's account of liberty: freedom means having no external obstacle to what you want to do. Subjects are free wherever the law is silent, and no one can be bound to harm himself, because the right to defend one's life cannot be signed away. Chapters 22–24 cover groups within the state, public ministers, money and settlements abroad. Why it matters: the sovereign is powerful but not unlimited, and self-preservation is the last boundary.

Chapters 25–31: Counsel, Law, Punishment and Collapse

Hobbes separates counsel from command: advice serves the person advised, a command serves the one who gives it. Civil law is the sovereign's command, and it gives ‘just’ and ‘unjust’ a fixed meaning. Punishment is harm inflicted by public authority to make people obey. Chapter 29 lists the causes that weaken or destroy a commonwealth, including divided power and the belief that every private person may judge good and evil alone. Chapter 30 names the sovereign's duty as the safety of the people. Why it matters: Hobbes treats civil war as the worst outcome, so divided authority is the state's disease.

Part 3, Chapters 32–43: Of a Christian Commonwealth

Hobbes turns to scripture and quotes the Bible at length to argue that Christian faith gives nobody a rival claim to the sovereign's authority. In a Christian state, he says, the sovereign decides how the church is governed and which readings count as public law, while private belief stays private. Miracles, prophecy and the meaning of the ‘kingdom of God’ are reexamined. The final chapter says the one article needed for salvation is that Jesus is the Christ. Why it matters: Hobbes tries to remove the conflict between church and state, which he blamed for the civil war.

Part 4, Chapters 44–47: Of the Kingdom of Darkness

The last part attacks what Hobbes sees as sources of spiritual and intellectual darkness: misreadings of scripture, beliefs borrowed from pagan sources, and the Roman church's claim to rule above kings. He compares the papacy to the ghost of the dead Roman Empire. He also rejects scholastic philosophy built on Aristotle as empty talk. A short Review and Conclusion closes the book. Why it matters: it applies the book's central claim to the religion and universities of Hobbes's day, because divided loyalty cannot give lasting peace.

Key people and terms

Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher (1588–1679). He wrote Leviathan during the Civil War and argued that fear of violent death and the need for security justify strong government.

State of nature

An imagined condition with no government, law or common judge. Hobbes uses it to ask what life would be like without authority, and answers that it would be a constant war of all against all.

Laws of nature

Rules found by reason that point toward peace. The first is to seek peace when you can, the second is to give up your right to everything if others will too, and the third is to keep your agreements.

Covenant

A mutual promise. In Hobbes, covenants only work reliably when a power exists to enforce them, which is why agreement alone cannot create peace.

Sovereign

The person or assembly that receives everyone's right of self-government. The sovereign makes laws, judges disputes and keeps the peace, and answers to no human court.

Leviathan (the commonwealth)

The state as an artificial man, named after the sea monster in the Book of Job. Its body is made of its people, and the sovereign acts as its soul.

Authorisation

The idea that people are the ‘authors’ of what their representative does. It explains why subjects cannot complain that the sovereign's acts are not theirs.

Locke and Rousseau

Later social-contract thinkers. Locke said government is held in trust and may be replaced if it fails to protect rights. Rousseau placed authority in the whole people's general will.

Using this book

Leviathan works well for essays and discussion because it states a clear thesis and gives reasons for each step. Here are some angles and questions.

• Fear and order: Is Hobbes right that fear of violence is the strongest reason for government? What other reasons might people have?
• Trade-offs: Hobbes gives up a great deal of freedom for security. When is that trade worth making, and when is it not?
• The chain of thinkers: Compare Hobbes with Locke and Rousseau. Where does each place the source of legitimate power?
• Modern echoes: Where do you see his ideas today, in debates about policing, emergency powers or international relations?
• A reading tip: Start with Chapters 13–18, which hold the main argument. Read the rest once you have the shape.

When you write, pick one claim, such as the state of nature, and test it against a real example in your own words.