Leviathan & the Social Contract
Thomas Hobbes · 1651
"Hobbes argued that without a sovereign to enforce agreement, life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' — so rational individuals trade some freedom for security, authorizing a common power that makes promises credible."
Hobbes wrote Leviathan during the English Civil War and asked: why would free people ever agree to be ruled? Because the alternative — everyone enforcing their own contract — is war.
In the state of nature, every person can defect without consequence, so cooperation unravels even among the well-meaning. A sovereign solves this not by being wise but by being the third-party enforcer that makes defection costlier than cooperation. Locke and Rousseau later revise the terms — consent, rights, general will — but keep Hobbes's frame: legitimate power is the thing that makes credible commitment possible among strangers.
What problem does Hobbes' social contract primarily claim to solve?
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The explanation above is written with AI assistance. These are the originals — go to them to check it.
- Leviathan (1651) — overviewWikipedia
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