| Front | Leviathan |
|---|---|
| Back | lɪˈvaɪəθən/ noun [countable] literary1 something very large and stronga leviathan of a ship2 a very large and frightening sea animal A treatise on political philosophy Thomas Hobbes 1651 Principles of sovereign rule and the fundamental tenet of his philosophy is that the basis of government must be Practical consent Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic Western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong, undivided government. This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2012) Quick facts: Author, Country … Content Title The title of Hobbes's treatise alludes to the Leviathan mentioned in the Book of Job. Unlike the more informative titles usually given to works of early modern political philosophy, such as John Locke's Two Treatises of Government or Hobbes's own earlier work The Elements of Law, Hobbes selected a more poetic name for this more provocative treatise. Lexicographers in the early modern period believed that the term "leviathan" was associated with the Hebrew words lavah, meaning "to couple, connect, or join", and thannin, meaning "a serpent or dragon". In the Westminster Assembly's annotations on the Bible, the interpreters believed that the creature was named using these root words “because by his bignesse he seemes not one single creature, but a coupling of divers together; or because his scales are closed, or straitly compacted together.” Samuel Mintz suggests that these connotations lend themselves to Hobbes's understanding of political force since both "Leviathan and Hobbes's sovereign are unities compacted out of separate individuals; they are omnipotent; they cannot be destroyed or divided; they inspire fear in men; they do not make pacts with men; theirs is the dominion of power." |
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