Leviathan: The Introduction Summary & Analysis

Hobbes claims that human life is nothing but the movement of arms and legs, and any other automated machine is no different. An engine has “artificial life”—the heart is but a “Spring,” the nerves are “Strings,” and the whole body is given motion by “Wheeles.” So is the case in art and in any other work created by humankind, such as in the “great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man.” The sovereign is “an Artificiall Soul,” and the magistrates and members of the judiciary and executive government are the “artificiall Joynts.” A sovereign nation’s abilities to punish and reward citizens are the “Nerves,” and the peoples’ safety is its “Businesse.” Laws are like “artificiall Reason” and civil war is “Death.”

The purpose of Hobbes’s book is to “describe the Nature of this Artificiall man,” and he will do so in four ways. First, Hobbes will describe “Man,” who is the “Artificer” of the Leviathan. Then, Hobbes will describe how a Leviathan is made and under what rights and power it is maintained or destroyed. Hobbes will also discuss the “Christian Common-wealth” and the “Kingdome of Darkness.”

Hobbes cites two common sayings: “Wisedome is acquired, not by reading of Books, but of Men,” and “Nosce teipsum, Read thy self.” Adages such as these teach others that passions and thoughts are common to all of humankind and that everyone thinks, reasons, hopes, and fears. What each person thinks about, hopes, and fears is different and individual, but these basic passions at least are shared. In governing a nation—a Leviathan—one must read not only their self, but all of humankind, and doing so is more difficult than learning any science or language.