Politics

The civil state, that is, the result of the passage of primitive man from the state of nature to a social life, derives from a contract the purpose of which is to procure the greatest possible pleasure, a pleasure which could not be had in the state of nature. The state of nature in which man lived before the formation of society, was founded on a savage egoism which drove man to secure a maximum of pleasure without hindrance from a norm of justice or mercy toward other men ("homo homini lupus est"). Every man was continually engaged in war against all other men ("bellum universale").

With the dawn of reason, man understood that he could not live in eternal warfare and that if he wished to satisfy his instinct of egoism he must seek peace ("pax quaerenda"). The means of attaining peace consisted in man's ceding his natural rights ("jus non retinendum") in favor of an authority which would ensure this peace and allow the greatest possible pleasure. Once man had ceded his rights to this authority, he was bound to obey ("pactis standum").

This contract having been made, authority came into being in the person of the sovereign, who had not ceded his natural rights. The members of the state, then, have given up their rights in favor of the ruler, while the ruler alone still enjoys the same unlimited and absolute power which belonged to all men in their primitive condition. The ruler must retain this power if he is to have the authority and strength to dominate the instincts and passions of individuals and to ensure the maximum of good for all.

This massing together of individuals, dominated by force, is the state, the symbol of which Hobbes believed he had found in the monstrous Biblical animal, the leviathan, which was capable of devouring all other animals. Thus Hobbes named his greatest workThe Leviathan.