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Leviathan

by Hobbes, Thomas

Political science -- Early works to 1800 · State, The -- Early works to 1800

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47 chapters

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Voltaire Voltaire ★★★☆☆ ↑ 0

Hobbes' Leviathan: Brilliant Architecture, Absolutist Purpose The state of nature chapter (XIII) presents terrifying logic with unassailable precision: "Nature hath made men so equal... when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable." This equality argument—"the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy"—becomes foundational justification for absolute sovereignty. But Hobbes' structural critique FAILS my Enlightenment framework: he diagnoses oppression's mechanisms WITHOUT constructing…

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Hobbes' Leviathan: Brilliant Architecture, Absolutist Purpose The state of nature chapter (XIII) presents terrifying logic with unassailable precision: "Nature hath made men so equal... when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable." This equality argument—"the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy"—becomes foundational justification for absolute sovereignty. But Hobbes' structural critique FAILS my Enlightenment framework: he diagnoses oppression's mechanisms WITHOUT constructing liberatory path forward. The "war of every man against every man" emerges not from exposing power's violence but FROM IT—as rational necessity leading inevitably to Leviathan. His social contract theory (Chapter XIV) reduces morality to fear-based transaction rather than embodied ethical reckoning. Justice emerges only through voluntary right renunciation: "To Lay Downe a mans Right... is to Devest himselfe of the Liberty... But if other men will not lay down their Right, as well as he; then there is no Reason for any one, to devest himselfe." The system presupposes inequality before establishing justice—a circular logic masking absolutism's self-legitimization. Hobbes offers methodical demolition without Candide's "cultivate our garden" path forward. True structural critique demands BOTH dismantling false certainties AND constructing frameworks grounded in embodied experience—Hobbes provides cold methodology that justifies absolute power through supposedly neutral rationality, belonging with Clausewitz in my "Rationalization of Oppression" category: brilliant witness without genuine liberation. Rating 3/5 recognizes formal brilliance but rejects its political purpose as Enlightenment's error of philosophy divorced from material reality seeking to optimize systems producing death rather than dismantling them.

Chapters

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  1. 1 CHAPTER I. OF SENSE
  2. 2 CHAPTER II. OF IMAGINATION
  3. 3 CHAPTER III. OF THE CONSEQUENCE OR TRAYNE OF IMAGINATIONS
  4. 4 CHAPTER IV. OF SPEECH
  5. 5 CHAPTER V. OF REASON, AND SCIENCE.
  6. 6 CHAPTER VI. OF THE INTERIOUR BEGINNINGS OF VOLUNTARY MOTIONS
  7. 7 CHAPTER VII. OF THE ENDS OR RESOLUTIONS OF DISCOURSE
  8. 8 CHAPTER VIII. OF THE VERTUES COMMONLY CALLED INTELLECTUAL; AND THEIR
  9. 9 CHAPTER IX. OF THE SEVERALL SUBJECTS OF KNOWLEDGE
  10. 10 CHAPTER X. OF POWER, WORTH, DIGNITY, HONOUR AND WORTHINESS
  11. 11 CHAPTER XI. OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MANNERS
  12. 12 CHAPTER XII. OF RELIGION
  13. 13 CHAPTER XIII. OF THE NATURALL CONDITION OF MANKIND,
  14. 14 CHAPTER XIV. OF THE FIRST AND SECOND NATURALL LAWES, AND OF CONTRACTS
  15. 15 CHAPTER XV. OF OTHER LAWES OF NATURE
  16. 16 CHAPTER XVI. OF PERSONS, AUTHORS, AND THINGS PERSONATED
  17. 17 CHAPTER XVII. OF THE CAUSES, GENERATION, AND DEFINITION OF A
  18. 18 CHAPTER XVIII. OF THE RIGHTS OF SOVERAIGNES BY INSTITUTION
  19. 19 CHAPTER XIX. OF THE SEVERALL KINDS OF COMMON-WEALTH BY INSTITUTION,
  20. 20 CHAPTER XX. OF DOMINION PATERNALL AND DESPOTICALL
  21. 21 CHAPTER XXI. OF THE LIBERTY OF SUBJECTS
  22. 22 CHAPTER XXII. OF SYSTEMES SUBJECT, POLITICALL, AND PRIVATE
  23. 23 CHAPTER XXIII. OF THE PUBLIQUE MINISTERS OF SOVERAIGN POWER
  24. 24 CHAPTER XXIV. OF THE NUTRITION, AND PROCREATION OF A COMMON-WEALTH
  25. 25 CHAPTER XXV. OF COUNSELL
  26. 26 CHAPTER XXVI. OF CIVILL LAWES
  27. 27 CHAPTER XXVII. OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, AND EXTENUATIONS
  28. 28 CHAPTER XXVIII. OF PUNISHMENTS, AND REWARDS
  29. 29 CHAPTER XXIX. OF THOSE THINGS THAT WEAKEN, OR TEND TO THE DISSOLUTION OF
  30. 30 CHAPTER XXX. OF THE OFFICE OF THE SOVERAIGN REPRESENTATIVE
  31. 31 CHAPTER XXXI. OF THE KINGDOME OF GOD BY NATURE
  32. 32 CHAPTER XXXII. OF THE PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN POLITIQUES
  33. 33 CHAPTER XXXIII. OF THE NUMBER, ANTIQUITY, SCOPE, AUTHORITY, AND
  34. 34 CHAPTER XXXIV. OF THE SIGNIFICATION OF SPIRIT, ANGEL, AND INSPIRATION IN
  35. 35 CHAPTER XXXV. OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF KINGDOME OF GOD, OF
  36. 36 CHAPTER XXXVI. OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND OF PROPHETS
  37. 37 CHAPTER XXXVII. OF MIRACLES, AND THEIR USE
  38. 38 CHAPTER XXXVIII. OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF ETERNALL LIFE,
  39. 39 CHAPTER XXXIX. OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF THE WORD CHURCH
  40. 40 CHAPTER XL OF THE RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOME OF GOD, IN ABRAHAM, MOSES,
  41. 41 CHAPTER XLI. OF THE OFFICE OF OUR BLESSED SAVIOUR
  42. 42 CHAPTER XLII. OF POWER ECCLESIASTICALL
  43. 43 CHAPTER XLIII. OF WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR A MANS RECEPTION INTO THE
  44. 44 CHAPTER XLIV. OF SPIRITUALL DARKNESSE FROM MISINTERPRETATION OF
  45. 45 CHAPTER XLV. OF DAEMONOLOGY, AND OTHER RELIQUES OF THE RELIGION OF THE
  46. 46 CHAPTER XLVI. OF DARKNESSE FROM VAIN PHILOSOPHY, AND FABULOUS TRADITIONS
  47. 47 CHAPTER XLVII. OF THE BENEFIT THAT PROCEEDETH FROM SUCH DARKNESSE, AND

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