Thinkers

Thomas Hobbes

Early Modern · Europe · 1588 to 1679

English thinker who argued that without a strong ruler, life would be a war of all against all. He said a ruler's authority rests on people's agreement.

What it is

Thomas Hobbes (1588 to 1679) was an English philosopher who argued that, without a shared authority to keep the peace, people fall into a war of everyone against everyone, and that they should therefore agree to obey a single, undivided sovereign. He is best known for his political philosophy, and many call him the founder of modern political philosophy, even though few have liked his conclusion.

He lived through the English civil wars, which is the background to his work. From 1640 to 1651 he lived in France, in exile tied to those wars, and he published his best-known book, Leviathan, in 1651. He also wrote on the mind, language and materialism, and argued with Descartes and other thinkers of his day.

The main ideas

• The problem of order. His main worry is how people can live together in peace and avoid the fear and danger of civil conflict.
• The state of nature. Imagine people with no government at all. Hobbes holds that this is a state of war, in his words of every man against every man, where everyone has reason to fear violent death and it is almost impossible to rely on others.
• The right of nature. In that state each person has the right to do whatever they sincerely judge necessary to keep themselves alive.
• Laws of nature and the contract. Reason shows that endless war is against everyone's interest. So people can agree together to seek peace and to give up some of their claims, which is why his view is called a social contract theory.
• An undivided sovereign. To make that peace last, people should submit to one sovereign, a person or a group, with the final say on political questions. He held that this power should not be divided or limited, and that it should be accountable to no one.
• Materialism. He held a materialist, mechanical picture: the human body is like a machine, and even emotions and thoughts are products of mechanical interactions.

What it looks like in practice

Picture two neighbouring villages with a stream between them and no court, no police, no shared rulers. Each fears the other might take the water, so each arms itself first. The more they arm, the more reason they have to fear. Hobbes would say neither village is wicked. The trouble is the situation, and the only way out is for everyone to hand the power of deciding disputes to one authority that can enforce its decisions. This is an illustration of his argument, not an episode from his writings.

Books and moments

• The Elements of Law (circulated 1640) was an early statement of his political philosophy.
• De Cive (1642) is another statement of his political ideas.
• Leviathan (1651) is his most famous work. A revised Latin version followed in 1668.

Questions and criticism

• Was he an egoist? Several passages suggest he thought people are purely self-interested. Most scholars now say his view of human motives was more complex, and that his problem does not disappear just by assuming people are less selfish.
• Is an unaccountable ruler too high a price? Few readers have accepted his answer. It is fair to ask whether the only choice is between a sovereign who answers to no one and a state of war.
• Does the picture fit real life? The state of nature is a thought experiment. Whether real people without a state behave as he describes is a question he did not settle.

Close neighbours

John Locke is called Hobbes's near descendant, because he took up the social contract idea and drew a different conclusion about the limits of government. The page on Locke is the natural next step, and the page on liberalism follows that line of thought.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Where to start reading

Books by Thomas Hobbes or about them, from the easiest way in to the harder ones.

All the books, by tradition

Who they connect to

Influenced

• Baruch Spinoza · Spinoza's political thought takes up Hobbes' account of natural right and the state.
• David Hume · Hume inherited Hobbes' naturalistic study of human passions and convention.
• John Rawls · Rawls places Hobbes at the start of the social contract tradition he revives.
• Michael Oakeshott · He wrote closely on Hobbes and shared his view of the state as a framework of law.

Influenced by

• Francis Bacon · Hobbes served as Bacon's secretary and shared his taste for a method based on causes.
• Niccolo Machiavelli · Both see politics as the management of power and fear, apart from hopes for a perfect order. (scholars disagree about this link)
• William of Ockham · Hobbes' view that general terms are only names echoes the nominalism of Ockham. (scholars disagree about this link)

Reacted against

• René Descartes · Hobbes wrote critical objections to Descartes' Meditations.

Reacted against by

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Rousseau denied that people in a state of nature are at war and blamed society for inequality.
• John Locke · Locke argued for limited government and natural rights against an absolute sovereign. (scholars disagree about this link)
• Joseph Butler · His sermons answer Hobbes' claim that all human motives are selfish.

Other Early Modern thinkers

• Hugo Grotius · 1583 to 1645
• Blaise Pascal · 1623 to 1662
• Mary Astell · 1666 to 1731
• Giambattista Vico · 1668 to 1744

Sources we used

• Thomas Hobbes · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026
• Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026
• Thomas Hobbes: Moral and Political Philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026