Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes: a short and concise review

Advancing a system that meets with wide refutation in today’s democratic world, Leviathan was met with almost universal acclaim when it was published in 1651. It endorsed strong government as the most reliable and effective form of government; in effect, he was legitimizing the right of monarchs not through the then accepted reason of his ‘divine right’, but through reason itself.

It is quite infamous today both for rejecting the doctrine of separation of powers (that there should be 2-3 sections of government to check each other to prevent abuse of power) and for defending the right of the state to censor any publication that do. they deem necessary.

“I put as a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire for power after power, which ceases only at death”

Absolute rule is justified by hypothetically assuming a world devoid of a higher authority, a world that Hobbes believed would be a “war of all against all”. Therefore, a higher authority is needed to prevent this brutal state, and Hobbes believes that a strong central government is more effective in ruling. Before you think that the form of government advocated in Leviathan has been superseded by representative democracy and is therefore not worth reading, it contains very insightful comments on human nature, such as imagining our condition where higher authorities (governments ) do not exist to keep us under control.

“There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility of mind while we live here, for life itself is only movement, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, nor without meaning.“

This book inspired the flurry of political treatises during the 17th and 18th centuries, including those by John Locke and Rousseau, among many others. Also, if he’s interested, Hobbes translated numerous works from ancient Greek and Latin into English, including a complete translation of The Iliad and The Odyssey. But Leviathan remained, both in his time and today, his masterpiece and his most famous work. Although his doctrine is rejected today due to historical abuses by absolute governments, Leviathan still contains a wealth of timeless wisdom and insight.

“Without arts, without letters, without society; and what is worse of all, the continuous fear and the danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, unpleasant, brutal and short.”