Table of Contents
What is the most famous quote from the Leviathan?
Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all. For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it. For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man’s nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
What was Thomas Hobbes saying in Leviathan?
Hobbes proposed that the natural basic state of humankind is one of anarchy, with the strong dominating the weak. Life for most people, he said, was ‘solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short’. Therefore, our one natural right is of self-preservation.
Who said that life is a constant quest for power which ends only in death?
THOMAS HOBBES, THE LEVIATHAN (1651) In the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ceases only in death.
What does the Leviathan say?
In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes argued that the absolute power of the sovereign was ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, who agreed, in a hypothetical social contract, to obey the sovereign in all matters in exchange for a guarantee of peace and security.
What was one of Thomas Hobbes famous quotes?
“Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools. ” “No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” “The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.”
What was Hobbes most famous work the Leviathan about?
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. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign.
Language: English, Latin (Hobbes produced a
Publication date: April 1651
Genre: Political philosophy
Author: Thomas Hobbes
What is the Leviathan a metaphor for?
A metaphor for the state, the Leviathan is described as an artificial person whose body is made up of all the bodies of its citizens, who are the literal members of the Leviathan’s body. The head of the Leviathan is the sovereign.
