Major Works
Behemoth, or the Long Parliament [written 1668, published 1682]
- University of Chicago Press, 1990 (Ferdinand Toennies, ed.)Behemoth is Hobbes’s account of the English Civil Wars of the 1640s. It is an important book in helping us consider how the experience of the wars influenced Hobbes’s thinking, and how he would later interpret the wars through the perspective of the… More
A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England [written 1666, published 1681]
- University of Chicago Press, 1997 (Joseph Cropsey, ed.)Hobbes presents here, in dialogue form, a reflection on the relation between reason and law. The opinion that emerges from this dialogue manages to maintain Hobbes’s famous insistence on the indivisibility of sovereignty while allowing for a separation of… More
Of Liberty and Necessity and Selections from Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance [1654-1656]
- Cambridge University Press, 1999 (Hobbes and Bramhall on Liberty and Necessity, Vere Chappell, ed.)This volume presents an exchange between Hobbes and the Anglican cleric John Bramhall. Hobbes and Bramhall debate questions such as whether human beings can act freely, what freedom means, whether freedom and material determination can coexist, and how… More
The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic [1640]
- Hobbes, Thomas. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic. Edited by J. C. A. Gaskin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.This is Hobbes’s first published philosophical work (1640), which was written in part in response to the conflicts between Charles I and Parliament. The book represents Hobbes’s initial attempt to address political matters with the deductive methods of… More
The Elements of Philosophy: De Cive
- Hobbes, Thomas. Man and Citizen (De Homine and De Cive). Edited by Bernard Gert. Translated by Charles T. Wood, T. S. K. Scott-Craig, and Bernard Gert. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1991.Thomas Hobbes’s De Cive (Latin for “On the Citizen”), first published in 1642 and later revised in 1647, is a foundational text in his political philosophy. It serves as a precursor to his more famous work, Leviathan, and systematically… More
The Elements of Philosophy: De Homine
- Hobbes, Thomas. Man and Citizen (De Homine and De Cive). Edited by Bernard Gert. Translated by Charles T. Wood, T. S. K. Scott-Craig, and Bernard Gert. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1991.Thomas Hobbes’s De Homine (Latin for “On Man”) is part of his larger trilogy on political and natural philosophy, which also includes De Cive (“On the Citizen”) and Leviathan. Written in 1658, De Homine delves into… More
The Elements of Philosophy: De Corpore
- Hobbes, Thomas. Human Nature and De Corpore Politico. Edited by J. C. A. Gaskin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.Thomas Hobbes’s De Corpore (Latin for “On the Body”), published in 1655, is the first part of his trilogy on philosophy, which includes De Homine (“On Man”) and De Cive (“On the Citizen”). In De Corpore, Hobbes develops… More
Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil [1651]
- Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan: With Selected Variants from the Latin Edition of 1668. Edited by Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994.The Leviathan is Hobbes’s masterwork, published in 1651. It contains four parts: “Of Man,” “Of Commonwealth,” “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” and “Of the Kingdom of Darkness.” “Of Man” connects… More