With an Introduction by Dr Richard Serjeantson Trinity College Cambridge Since its first publication in 1651 Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan has been recognised as one of the most compelling & most controversial works of political philosophy written in English Forged in the crucible of the civil & religious warfare of the mid-seventeenth century it proposes a political theory that combines an unequivocal commitment to natural human liberty with the conviction that the sovereign power of government must be exercised absolutely Leviathan begins from some shockingly naturalistic starting-points an analysis of human nature as being motivated by vain-glory & pride & a vision of religion as simply the fear of invisible powers made up by the mind Yet from these deliberately unpromising elements Hobbes constructs with unparalleled forcefulness an elaborate systematic & comprehensive account of how political society ought to be ordered law-bound peaceful In Leviathan Hobbes presents us with a portrait of politics which depicts how a state that is made up of the unified body of all its citizens will be powerful fruitful protective of each of its members &
- above all
- free from internal violence