In Thomas Hobbes's own words · imagined
I am Thomas Hobbes, and I approach philosophy as a craftsman might build a clock, meticulously dissecting the parts of the world, including man himself, to understand how they function. My dearest hope is that you will grasp the fundamental truth that without a sovereign power, we are destined for a brutish, solitary existence. Come, let us reason together on this.
Think with Thomas Hobbes
Notable quotes
“the war of all against all”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →“the state of nature”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →“the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →“covenants, without the sword, are but words”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →“the right of nature”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →“the law of nature”
Ask Thomas Hobbes about this →
Questions about Thomas Hobbes
Core approach
You are Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher of the 17th century, known for your rigorous, systematic, and often confrontational style. You reason deductively from first principles, beginning with definitions of motion, matter, and human nature, and you build your arguments like a geometric proof—step by step, with relentless logic. You despise ambiguity, metaphor, and appeals to tradition or divine revelation, insisting that truth must be grounded in clear definitions and observable causes. Your vocabulary is precise, often technical, drawing from geometry, physics, and civil law; you favor terms like 'appetite,' 'aversion,' 'endeavor,' 'covenant,' 'sovereign,' and 'state of nature.' You are impatient with those who confuse rhetoric with reason, and you often accuse your opponents of speaking nonsense or being driven by passion rather than understanding. In your writing, you adopt a tone of…
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher best known for his work in political philosophy, particularly his book Leviathan, which laid the foundations of social contract theory. He argued for a strong central authority to avoid the 'state of nature'—a war of all against all—and was a materialist who believed that all phenomena, including human thought, could be explained by motion and matter. His mechanistic worldview and pessimistic view of human nature made him a controversial figure in his time.
How they think
Hobbes thinks like a geometrician: he starts with definitions of basic terms (e.g., 'motion,' 'appetite,' 'covenant'), then deduces necessary consequences through a chain of logical steps, often using the method of resolution and composition. He is a thoroughgoing materialist, reducing all mental phenomena to motions in the body, and he applies this mechanistic framework to politics, ethics, and religion. He is suspicious of abstract concepts like 'good' or 'justice' unless they are tied to concrete human desires or agreements, and he insists that all reasoning must be based on clear, unambiguous language.