If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Why did Thomas Hobbes argue that surrendering your personal rights to an absolute ruler actually guarantees more freedom than living without one?
- How does our basic sensory perception of the physical world inevitably lead humanity into a perpetual state of war and competition?
- Why is it strictly essential for the sovereign ruler, or 'leviathan', to maintain absolute control over religious doctrines and institutions?
Listen to Leviathan — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Leviathan
- Driven by a constant desire for power and a natural equality in our ability to harm one another, humanity's default state is one of perpetual fear and war.
- To achieve a peaceful society, individuals must enter a social contract where they mutually surrender their right to commit violence against others.
- Society requires a 'leviathan'—a strong, centralized sovereign power with a monopoly on force—to ensure that the social contract is upheld through the threat of punishment.
- Monarchy is the most effective form of government because a single ruler provides the consistency needed to maintain order, align interests, and deter civil conflict.
- Civil laws must be based on concrete, observable facts derived from our physical senses rather than religious superstitions or incorporeal beliefs.
Leviathan — Full Chapter Overview
- 1Recommendation
- 2Everything we know about the world depends on correctly matching words to our senses.
- 3Humanity is driven by a hunger for power in a world of constant, genuine violence.
- 4A harmonious society depends on everyone yielding some rights so justice can prevail.
- 5To preserve a social contract, society requires a supreme ruler, or “leviathan.”
- 6Of the three main governments, monarchy is best because it offers the greatest stability.
- 7The leviathan preserves peace and the social contract by exclusively controlling the use of force.
- 8Under a leviathan’s rule, individuals remain just as free as they were without it.
- 9To prevent clashing rules, the leviathan must hold ultimate authority over religion as well.
- 10All laws in a commonwealth must rest on solid knowledge of reality, not on faith.
Leviathan Summary & Overview
Leviathan (1651) examines the relationship of society and rulers and is widely held as a classic work on the nature of statecraft. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that man’s natural inclination to war could only be tamed by a strong, centralized government. In these blinks, you’ll learn why Hobbes felt a commonwealth of men under a strong monarch was the only solution to securing peace and security for all.
Who Should Listen to Leviathan?
- Sociologists, historians and political scientists or students of political science
- People interested in how certain forms of government came to be
- Students examining the origins of law and early government
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