In the seventeenth century, Thomas Hobbes gave the most powerful argument ever written for the necessity of some form of government. His opposition to anarchy is what motivated all of his political works, including “Leviathan.” People associate Hobbes with a very dark view of human nature, and it is small wonder that his worldview is unpopular with more starry-eyed romantics. But it is hard to escape the logical force of his anti-anarchical arguments. He believed that life without government is “a time of War, where every man is Enemy to every man.” And without this government, he believed the life of man to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Some at this time were constitutional monarchists, while others were absolute monarchists. Hobbes was an absolute monarchist. In his early career, his support for absolute government was even more extreme than it would be later on. Some have even described his early works as “grammars of obedience,” and this unfortunately seems rather accurate. The audiobook goes into all of this in some detail. But he would tone down this rhetoric somewhat in later years. Why? Because of the English Civil War. In that conflict, Hobbes sided with the King, rather than with the Parliament. This meant that he was on the losing side of the civil war. King Charles the First was later executed by Oliver Cromwell and his allies. Terrified, Hobbes then fled across the English Channel to France. He was afraid to return, for fear of the vengeance of the war’s winners.
Thomas Hobbes
“Leviathan” was written while the English Civil War was still going on, as this audiobook notes. Specifically, it was written in the later part of that war. It condemned rebellion in no uncertain terms, saying that the people have no right to oppose an established government. But later on, Hobbes made some concessions to the newer government of Oliver Cromwell. That is to say, he allowed that it was reasonable to support any de-facto government, including that of Mr. Cromwell. His royalist friends were outraged, but this concession did give Hobbes a safe passage back to England. Thus, he spent his last years back in England. His life story makes for a dramatic biography, and this audiobook gives some due attention to that biography.
Frontispiece to Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan”
As mentioned earlier, “Leviathan” gives a dark description of life without government. Hobbes called this the “state of nature,” in terms that were later echoed by many others. His version is decidedly violent and nasty – indeed, “nasty, brutish, and short.” But Hobbes could be almost utopian about life with a government. This surprises many, given the popular perception of Hobbes. But he seems to have believed that most problems would magically go away when there was an absolute ruler. This is one of my many quibbles with Hobbes. Hobbes is often associated with a “social contract” theory of government, but this seems to be a little ironic. Hobbes acknowledged few (if any) duties of sovereigns to their people. Rather, virtually all duties went the other way for Hobbes, with people having to “obey” the sovereign without question. Nonetheless, it is true that he laid the foundations for social contract theory later on, as used by later writers like John Locke. Thus, the legacy of Hobbes has both good and bad aspects.
Thomas Hobbes
The book “Leviathan” is known as a work of political philosophy. Thus, people are often surprised to learn that more than half of this book is about religion. Why? Because in the days before separation of church and state, it was impossible to separate politics from religion. Thus, in his time, writing about politics necessarily entailed talking about which religion controlled the government. My philosophical interests are more political than religious, so I had little interest in reading these more religious parts. Thus, I read only one-quarter or so of the book “Leviathan” itself – the most political parts. I have a very mixed opinion of the things that I read. But along with the bad, there are many good things in “Leviathan,” which laid the foundations of our Constitution. Thus, I believe that we should give credit where it’s due. The audiobook is the next best thing to reading “Leviathan” for me, because it covers many of the parts that I missed. Thus, it has long been one of my favorite audiobooks for this reason.
Thomas Hobbes
Obviously, some parts of the work “Leviathan” have not aged well, and were thus rejected by the later generation of the Founding Fathers. But “Leviathan” is nonetheless one of the most important political texts ever written in the English language. Some parts of it should obviously be taken with a grain of salt. But, as mentioned earlier, it gave the most powerful argument ever written for the necessity of some form of government. Its failures are those of its time, and its successes are those of all time. This audiobook is a great introduction to this most important work, which helps to place its arguments into the fascinating context of its time.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Part of the audiobook series
The Giants of Political Thought
Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan
Others to be covered later
See also the audiobook series
The United States Constitution
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