Previous
Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
As people “naturally love Liberty, and Dominion over others,” it is natural for people to restrain this love to preserve life and escape the state of war in nature. Since the Laws of Nature cannot be followed without the creation of some central power to compel people to honor covenants, people have joined together to live in common-wealths.
Again, this is the essence of Hobbes’s argument concerning people’s movement from nature to civil society. People created common-wealths to establish a central power and halt the state of war that is nature. However, the natural love humans have for freedom and power means that even in a common-wealth, covenants are not always honored.
Themes
A common-wealth is the joining of a large number of people, as only the joining of a multitude can bring security. The people of a joined multitude must be of similar appetites and similar needs to defend against a common enemy. If appetites and enemies are different, competing ideals will hinder security rather than ensure it. The security obtained from a common-wealth must be unlimited and not be restricted to any one battle or war.
In short, the power of a common-wealth cannot be provisional or good only in certain circumstances. The sovereign power of a common-wealth must have absolute power over the people at all times, otherwise that power is weakened and not fit to secure and protect the multitude.
Themes
Hobbes admits that there are creatures, like bees and ants, who live sociably with each other, and Aristotle considered such creatures political creatures. As such creatures live sociably with each other, Aristotle assumed that humans can do the same; however, Hobbes disagrees. People are in constant competition with each other for either honor or dignity, and envy and hatred are natural components of such competition. Furthermore, the agreement between bees and ants is natural, but a covenant entered into by humans is artificial, and to make that contract last, a central power is needed to compel adherence.
Again, Hobbes outright disagrees with Aristotle’s political philosophy, which assumes people are naturally social and tolerant of each other like bees. Hobbes argues that people are not naturally social, which is exactly why they need a central power to keep them in check.
Themes
A common-wealth is created to defend people from foreign invaders and ensure safety from injury and death. In other words, a multitude of people give their power to defend their lives to a single person or group of people, which in turn reduces the multitude to a voice of one and elects a single author to act in the collective best interest of the multitude. “This is the Generation of that great LEVIATHAN,” Hobbes says, under which everyone owes their peace and defense to the “Immortall God.”
Hobbes calls the ideal common-wealth the Leviathan, which is symbolic of the power of the people united under one sovereign power. In a common-wealth, the elected sovereign power is the author of all its subjects’ actions, as every action is either allowed or disallowed though the establishment of laws. Everyone owes their peace and defense in a common-wealth to God because a common-wealth operates according to the God-given Laws of Nature.
Themes
Get the entire Leviathan LitChart as a printable PDF.
The author within a common-wealth is the sovereign, and those whom the sovereign has power over are called subjects. Sovereign power is obtained either by natural force (common-wealth by acquisition), such as one who is born under a certain government by order of their parents or guardian and is obligated to submit, or through voluntary force (common-wealth by institution), as is done when a group of people voluntarily place power in a specific person or group of people. Hobbes will first discuss common-wealth by institution.
In Hobbes’s view, a common-wealth by institution is a common-wealth that people voluntarily institute via a covenant. Thus, when a common-wealth is conquered by another more powerful common-wealth, it is not a common-wealth by institution—unless, of course, one willingly submits to the invading power and consents to hand over their power and become a subject.
Themes
